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COMPLETE 

LIFE BUILDING 

METHOD 

of the 

RALSTON HEALTH CLUB 


THE “GOLD-EDITION” 

PRESENTING 

THE NEW ALL-NATURE SYSTEM 



Issued by the 

RALSTON HEALTH CLUB 

Hopewell, New Jersey 






.R£5 


Copyright, 1924, 

BY 

RALSTON COMPANY 
All Rights Reserved 


MANUFACTURED IN U. S. A. 


PRICE—FOR THE INFORMATION of those who are not 
familiar with the work of the Ralston Health Club, we will say 
that this Book of COMPLETE LIFE BUILDING is its latest 
issue, as well as its most important publication. While the 
prevailing price has been four dollars a copy; in order to reach 
all classes who are in need of health, the new prices are as 
follows: 

One or more copies, if bought directly from Ralston Company, 
Hopewell, New Jersey, each.. $2.00 

If bought of agents or Bookstores, each .... $2.25 


MAY -6 '24 

©C1A793182 

^ | 



Debication 

THIS “GOLDEN JUBILEE” EDITION OF COMPLETE 
A LIFE BUILDING IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO 
THOSE LOYAL MEMBERS OF THE RALSTON HEALTH 
CLUB WHO, IN THE PAST HALF CENTURY, HAVE BEEN 
LOYAL TO THEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF HEALTH, 
AND WHO HAVE THEREBY SERVED THEIR FRIENDS 
AND LOVED ONES BY NOT BECOMING UNNECESSARY 
BURDENS TO THEM. 

THE AUTHOR, 

EDMUND SHAFTESBURY. 




(greetings 


TO ALL WHO SHALL COME INTO POSSESSION OF 
1 THE PRESENT VOLUME, THE AUTHOR EXTENDS 
THE MOST CORDIAL PERSONAL GREETINGS AND 
WELL WISHES FOR A LONG LIFE AND UNINTER¬ 
RUPTED PROSPERITY. 


\ 


PUBLISHERS’ ANNOUNCEMENT 


“GOLD EDITION” 

OF THE 

RALSTON HEALTH CLUB 



NOTABLE FACTS 

SITH UNPRECEDENTED PLEASURE the Pub- 
lishers of this issue of the official hook of the Club, 
make the following announcement. Having passed 
through many scores of editions, each being an 
improvement on those that preceded, the time has 
come when the owners of this system shall not be asked to pur¬ 
chase further new issues; although many of our Members look 
forward to something new as they would in buying magazines 
for which they pay from two dollars to five dollars a year for 
a lifetime. But in the study of health, when that stage has been 
reached where it can be proved that ill health is unnecessary, 
and good health is within the reach of all persons, the system 
that contains these blessings needs no further improvement. 

1. —Being a perfected work, it is the FINAL BOOK, and 
celebrates the Fifty Years of the existence of the Club. 

2. —The book is printed in the most easily readable type, on 
the best paper, and is bound in the richest cloth that money can 
buy. It is stamped in PURE GOLD. 

3. —Based on the success of its predecessors in the use of 
methods that are retained herein; and adding a series of new 
treatments that have been proved in thousands of experiments to 
possess unusual value, with the encomium that they are worth 
many times their weight in GOLD,”—a verdict that has been 
pronounced more than one hundred thousand times with refer¬ 
ence to previous issues of this work.—we are justified in calling 

this book the “GOLD EDITION.” 

5 




6 


Complete Life Building 


4. —Its contents include facts that constitute eighty percent 
more new matter than is found in the regular book of General 
Membership; and twenty percent of this matter is newer and 
later in its information than that contained in the higher priced 
work issued some time ago. 

5. —The war price of four dollars is now reduced permanently 
to two dollars; while the book has been greatly improved and 
brought to a state of perfection. 

6. —The Ralston Health Club has nothing to sell, and never 
had; and the use of its name by various concerns is illegal, and 
indicates a dishonest purpose to seek public approval by using 
our success as a bait. True Ralstonites resent this. 

THE NEW POST-GRADUATE COURSE 

7. —There is only one book required in the Ralston Health 
Club; and that is the volume now open before you. It deals 
with the entire study of health, including the body, its organs 
and functions, all its parts, its nervous system, its vitality, vigor, 
life and powers; and includes the physical health of the brain. 
Hence it is COMPLETE. 

8. —But there is another realm of life. The human body was 
not created to eat, sleep, clothe itself, house itself, be born, 
struggle for existence, and die. It is a Temple. In it dwells the 
mind. 

9. —There is no work in existence, nor any system that “ min¬ 
isters to a mind diseased.’’—Yet if the question were to be put 
to you, would you be content to possess absolutely perfect health 
of body, and lack the full possession of the mind for which the 
body was created, or to reverse these conditions, you would at 
once prefer that the mind be sound and normal even if the body 
were ill. 

10. —Our Members have for a long time asked for this Post- 
Graduate Course; and it has been in private use for many years. 
There is not in the whole vast realm of published books a single 
work of this kind. It is the first to appear. Of course there are 
tens of thousands of treatises on the brain and its countless 
maladies; but nothing on the mind as the tenant of the Temple 
of Life; nothing whatever on the subject of “ministering to a 
mind diseased.” 


PREVENTION THAT PREVENTS 


In the city of Paris, France, prior to the war, if a pedestrian 
was hit by an automobile, the pedestrian was arrested and fined 
or imprisoned, if he contributed to the accident by his careless¬ 
ness. This measure, to the surprise of observers, reduced auto¬ 
mobile mishaps involving injury and death to pedestrians, fully 
seventy-five percent. On its face it does not seem logical, but it 
was in fact; and it worked. Even if it could not meet with the 
approval of others, was it worth while to save human life by 
reducing human carelessness? 

In the same city of Paris, prior to the war, but not since, as 
things are rather chaotic there now, if a driver through care¬ 
lessness injured a pedestrian, the driver was fined and impris¬ 
oned, and compelled to pay damages to the party hurt. 

In this same city of Paris, prior to the war, if a driver through 
carelessness, killed a pedestrian, he was imprisoned for a long 
term of years. In America if the same kind of killing occurs, 
the driver is fined and cautioned not >to repeat the offence. 

In Paris, prior to the war, if a drunken driver killed a pedes¬ 
trian the driver was sentenced to life imprisonment. In America 
if a drunken driver kills a pedestrian, he is fined; but if he kills 
a second one he is sentenced to imprisonment for three years; 
and, after a few months, is released on account of his ill health. 

The result has been that in France nearly every accident 
from such causes was checked; it was prevention that prevented. 
In America these accidents are on the increase; there is not a 
city or locality that does not show a steady annual growth of 
deaths from careless drivers or drunken drivers. It is because 
this country does not believe in prevention; and when it is too 
late, it says in effect, oh, well, these people are dead, and punish¬ 
ing the offenders will not bring them back to life. But what 
about the victims who had as much right to live as drunken 
drivers and speed maniacs? 

In a country where personal liberty is assumed to mean the 
right to do as one pleases regardless of the rights of all others, 
the progeny of this kind of belief is the ever-increasing horde 
of reckless drivers who defy the law to the limit; with 
the result that we are confronted with two ways of going about 

7 


8 


Complete Life Building 

a thing; one stops mishaps and premature deaths by shutting 
off the cause'; the other waits until it is too late and says, what 
is the use- now ? 

A certain city many years ago established a code of fines for 
cases of ill health. The sick had to pay the fines. Many million¬ 
aires have contracts with their family doctors that for every day 
of illness suffered by any member of the family, the doctor must 
pay a fine out of his annual allowance which is always generous. 
These contracts are well known and are invited by the doctors. 
In this class of crses the fines are paid by the physicians, who 
become unusually careful of their patients. 

In this city referred to, the patients themselves paid the fines; 
and it served to call their attention to the fact that nearly every 
case of sickness was preventable if they adopted a kind of pre¬ 
vention that prevented. They did. In fact they studied them¬ 
selves and the causes of illness and soon saw that every form of 
sickness, with very rare exceptions, was unnecessary. 

The time will come, so says one of the best observers of human 
conditions, when it will be made a criminal offence to become 
unnecessarily ill. This sounds harsh; so did the French edict 
that punished the pedestrian who got hit by an automobile; but 
as the trend of civilization is to lessen suffering and premature 
death, it is along the line of progress; and, as the French system 
reduced the accidents and deaths seventy-five percent, so if we 
can save that proportion of sufferers from ill health, we are jus¬ 
tified in the humane course to that end. 

Now we have seen that sick persons who through carelessness 
became unnecessarily ill in a certain city, were fined; that the 
doctors of millionaires if their patients are ill, are fined; and 
we nearly forgot to look at the great class of people who must 
be fined when relatives or friends are sick. 

If you are sick, who loses time and perhaps health in taking 
care of you? If you are blameless, it is the misfortune of your¬ 
self and of those who must make sacrifices to look after you. If 
you are to blame, it is unfair to impose these burdens on others. 
.They are penalized for your fault. 

The following cases are typical, and are but a few out of. 
countless thousands of instances where people are fined because 
of the unfairness of others. 

1. The matinee girl, or the young lady who goes to the movies 


Nature’s Doctors 


9 


afternoons, gets her soda water and ice cream on the way to the 
theatre, or on the home trip; and during the performance she 
munches candies on an empty stomach; with the result that she 
has no appetite for the evening meal, which she neglects or picks 
at; and in the course of a few days is taken sick. If her time 
had any value it is now a dead loss. Her mother had many other 
duties requiring attention, but must wait on the sick girl; her 
father must employ a doctor and go out perhaps a long distance 
for medicine; fever sets in, and a nurse is required. Here are 
expenses, loss of time of mother, perhaps of father, worry and a 
home turned into a sick house all because this girl did not care. 
Her mother and father have been fined for her illness. 

2. A husband starts out with no rubbers on in the morning 
when it is damp and threatening. His wife asks him to protect 
himself. He laughs and says he guesses he knows what he is 
about; he is supposed to have some intelligence, so he claims. 
The rain increases, his feet get wet, he is chilled, takes a violent 
cold and comes home for a long attack of pneumonia. Expensive 
doctors and nurses are employed; medicines bought by someone 
who must travel to drug stores to get them; the wife lays aside 
her regular work; all her enjoyment of life, all those hopes of 
relief from the weary burdens of daily existence are gone; she 
is shut in for weeks, and becomes dragged down to a bloodless 
face and deadened nerves, while she lives by day in the fear of 
death and hardly sleeps at night, until the crisis is over. Then 
she falls by the wayside. Who was fined ? Who was penalized ? 
Who really suffered most, the man whose obstinate perverseness 
exposed him to danger, or those who were compelled to make 
endless sacrifices because of his carelessness? This case is not 
only a true one, but has been repeated countless thousands of 
times. 

3. A woman stands in a doorway saying good-bye to a friend ; 
both women. The woman is clad in her thin dress for indoors; 
and it is bitter weather. The friend has on her heavy outdoor 
clothing, fur coat and hat as well, and enjoys the air, while the 
thinly clad woman shivers and her voice chatters. Her husband, 
not wishing to hurt the feelings of the friend who is saying good¬ 
bye many times, brings a cloak to his wife at the door; but it is 
too late. That night she is in a violent fever, and the doctor is 
working over her. Pneumonia ensues, and the symptoms are 


10 Complete Life Building 

alarming. Distant relatives are sent for. Doctors, nurses and 
relatives devote themselves to her. Children are in tears as they 
are told she cannot live. "Who was fined? Who paid the 
penalty ? 

4. A woman who possessed an inordinate desire to play games 
of chance, generally with cards, for prizes, winnings, or mere 
pleasure, instead of limiting her habits to social uses, ruined her 
vitality and her daytime value by late hours at night until her 
powers of resistance were so weakened that she became easy 
prey to disease. She did not know that any form of intensive 
interest in games of chance reduced the function of respiration 
from its normal of one hundred percent to less than one percent, 
as has been proved thousands of times by tests. One of the 
quickest and surest ways of building the health of the body, and 
especially the vitality of the heart, is by full, deep and habitual 
respiration. When this function drops below normal, the life 
power of the body is lessened. But when it drops to less than 
one percent, as in games of chance, dangers follow; the greatest 
of which is the weakening of the powers of resistance against 
disease. This is the condition that invites colds, la grippe, in¬ 
fluenza and nervous prostration. Add to these dangers the 
wasting of the best hours of the night, and the increased appe¬ 
tite that follows, seeking to be appeased by foods that unfit the 
body, nerves and brain for sound slumber, and you have one of 
the common causes of acute indigestion which sets in motion the 
maladies referred to above. 

The case we have stated is a typical one. This woman played 
until midnight; said she was ravenously hungry, and indulged 
in welsh rarebit, fried oysters and coffee. She became ill from 
acute indigestion, which lasted for a week; she was fortunate 
not to have been killed by it at the time of the first attack. 
After her partial recovery her heart that had always been in 
good condition, was affected and she died, leaving three children 
under the age of twelve, and two grown up daughters. The sick¬ 
ness and funeral cost the husband over two thousand dollars. 

It is a fact that ninety-nine cases out of every hundred of 
sickness are easily preventable. This is why it has been claimed 
by a great observer of human conditions that the time will come 
when unnecessary sickness will be made a crime, because it 
places a penalty on others who are not in any way to blame. 


BOOK ONE 


HEALTH AND LIFE 
IN 

CONFLICT 

WITH 

DISEASE AND DEATH 















4 






\ 



FIRST SECTION 


HEALTH AND LIFE 

S S WE PROGRESS in the work of unfolding the 
vital laws of life, we drift gradually to that shore 
where alone the secret of safety can be found. It is 
not disputed that thousands of men and women, as 
well as the young, die every year, yes, every month, 
by mis-using the digestive organs. It is not denied that certain 
food combinations bring quick death. It is a well known fact 
that acute indigestion is acute poisoning from gas generated 
from the struggle that takes place three times a day in the stom¬ 
ach ; ending, once for all, by the quick stroke at the heart. 

The most obvious fact in modern history is the rapid increase 
of diseases, and the still more rapid increase in the number of 
doctors and medicines, of surgeons, hospitals, instruments, 
nurses and the awful pageantry of endless funerals, taking from 
the scenes of life the very people who are needed in the world 
and who have a right to live. Count them! Count those of 
your acquaintances who have gone, too early, to their graves. 
Your time may be close at hand! No one knows what is to be 
the result of to-morrow’s indiscretion at the table. 

Yet it is well known that there must be two causes for every 
disease, one of which is the presence of poison within the body. 

If you are able to build the needed tissue that makes all your 
body, with its organs, nerves, bones, flesh and brain; and if you 
are able to so build all this tissue that there shall remain in the 
body none of the enemies of life, then the FIRST CAUSE OF 

13 









14 


Complete Life Building 

DISEASE cannot exist, and the second cause will be helpless; 
for it takes two to make a fight. 

We intend to prove that the first cause of all sickness and 
disease is from food enemies, except when there is inherited 
taint, and then this taint will remain dormant a lifetime in most 
cases unless food enemies develop it. How this first cause does 
its work will be shown with the utmost thoroughness in this 
work; and if it can be controlled we can make any person im¬ 
mune, and can cure with the special treatments that are con¬ 
tained in this volume all curable maladies, and many not sup¬ 
posed to be curable. 

The second cause consists of germs, where there is a second 
cause; and it will be learned that the air and all things carry 
these germs so that the battle is not with them as much as with 
the FIRST CAUSE; for in the absence of the latter the germs 
are powerless. You can never rid the world of the germs of dis¬ 
ease ; but you can rid humanity of the food enemies that cause 
the disease soil to grow in the body and make it a ready food 
for the germs. 


THE ROUND TABLE OF 1876 

In the days of the mythical King Arthur he had a round table 
built with commands that it must be perfectly round so that no 
preference could be shown to anyone who sat at it. Before this 
time, all tables were square or oblong. 

In the year 1876, seven men who had been student friends in 
former times, organized what they called a round table; and 
took under consideration the condition of the people in matters 
of health. In a city of 300,000 that winter it was stated by doc¬ 
tors that 290,000 suffered from colds, lung and throat troubles, 
and stomach disorders, and the death rate was alarmingly high. 
It was also learned that this disease wave was running with 
about the same violence everywhere in the land. 

Doctors were unable to check the epidemics; their methods 
were weak and frail; and medicines only added more poisons to 
the body that was already too heavily burdened with them from 
false diets. 

At this Round Table of 1876, there sat seven very earnest 



Nature’s Doctors 15 

men; they were studious, sincere, and deeply desirous of ascer¬ 
taining the real cause of human illness. 

One of these men had been impressed with the oft quoted 
history of Louis Cornaxo, the great Venetian, or Luigi as he 
was called in history. He was born in the year 1463; and about 
the year 1516 he found himself a physical wreck. He had defied 
all laws of health and caution, had been a gross drinker and in¬ 
discreet eater, and had caroused in many ways until he became 
bed-ridden. Had he not been a man of keen mind he would 
have died in that same year. The doctors told him his stomach 
was a wreck; his liver diseased beyond repair; his heart com¬ 
pletely out of order; his kidneys in the last stages of life; and 
his blood and skin in very mean condition, appearing in jaun¬ 
dice and irruptions. He got the idea that the human body was 
the result of the kind of food that was eaten; and he proceeded 
to restore his health solely by discarding all food that could not 
prove of perfectly wholesome value, depending largely on that 
class of eatables that correspond as far as is possible with what 
are known as the TRUE FOODS of this book. The principle 
at stake was exactly the same. 

Gradually he began to build a new body; and with new tissue 
the diseased parts were cast away, and better flesh and organs 
took the places of the old parts. In the course of time he be¬ 
came perfectly well and lived to be 103 years of age, dying in 
1566; the records confirm both dates; and many notables of 
that period knew of the remarkable transformation in the man, 
and urged him to publish a book on the subject which he did. 
It will be seen that the greatest scientific man who ever lived, 
and probably the greatest man in an all round sense, Thomas 
A. Edison, refers to this Venetian in our later Round Table. 

With the consideration of the prevalence of universal sickness 
on the one hand, and the rebuilding of a broken and wrecked 
body on the other, the seven men who met at the Round Table in 
1876, after a careful discussion, voted to adjourn and meet again 
in two months, each to present his opinion of the most important 
thing in life for the benefit of the seeker after health. The next 
meeting came about as arranged, and in order to maintain the 
equality of the Round Table, lots were drawn to determine who 
should first present his views, and the order of doing so. 

“R”—The first man whose name was drawn laid upon the 


16 


Complete Life Building 

table, as was planned, the word that represented what in his 
opinion would be the most powerful aid to the recovery of 
health, and in the preservation of it after recovery. The word 
he placed there had for its initial letter, “R.” Can you sur¬ 
mise what this word was? Can you think of anything that is 
expressed by a word beginning with the letter “R” that plays 
a most powerful part in the search after health ? In fact, each 
person was to select the thing that he considered the most essen¬ 
tial. Now what was it? 

He argued for it in the most convincing manner, and almost 
converted to his belief the other six; and he would have done so 
if they had not had their own ideas of something more impor¬ 
tant. But all agreed that what he put forward was surely essen¬ 
tial to health. What was it ? 

“A”—The next man to be called on by lot laid upon the table 
a word beginning with the letter “A.” This was supported by 
his arguments in a most able manner, and it was agreed that it 
was as essential as any other influence in a life of health. What 
was it? Think of some great thing that must be made a part 
of a health system. 

“L”—Now the third man drawn by lot was called upon and 
laid on the table a word beginning with the letter “L.” Some¬ 
one made the remark that it looked as if a word were being 
spelled; and one might come out of these first letters, or initials, 
if they proceeded in this way. But as the drawing had been 
wholly by chance, and as none present had any word in mind 
for the group of initials, the coining of a new name was out of 
the question; so it seemed at first. Then no one knew what 
words the others had. But what health influence is expressed 
by a word beginning with the letter “L”? Can you surmise? 

“S”—The fourth man was now asked to lay his word on the 
table, and there was considerable excitement when it was found 
to have for its initial the letter “S.” He discussed it warmly, 
as the others had done in defence of their individual ideas, and 
all agreed that it was a very essential thing in the study and 
practice of health. What was it? What powerful influence in 
the cause of health is indicated by a word beginning with the 
letter * ‘ S’ ’ ? Try to find it. 

“T”—Number five was next in order. Like all the others he 
supported his claims with zeal and clearness, and almost con- 


Nature’s Doctors 


17 


vinced them that his was the most important. What was it! 
What word in health matters begins with the letter “T”? 
Think it over. 

“0”—The sixth word was laid on the table by man number 
six and it began with the letter 4 4 0. ’ ’ What was it ? 

“N”—As soon as this seventh letter appeared as the initial 
of the seventh word, everybody arose and exclaimed that it was 
most remarkable for it spelled a name; the name R-A-L-S-T-O-N. 
This is the way in which the words came by lot, and their initial 
letters made the name that the Club now bears. It was acci¬ 
dent, or coincidence, pure and simple. Yet it closely spelled 
the ancestral name of the man who was destined to write the 
books of the Club; and here was what seemed the more wonder¬ 
ful coincidence. 

These seven men had desired to organize a Club and had not 
been able to find a name for it; so this word was adopted as the 
name that has gone round the world; and that has been given to 
116 editions of its book. 

THE ROUND TABLE OF 1926 

In anticipation of that meeting, and in advance of it, let us 
hear from our seven letter men. 

“R”—It is still true that my claim of the most essential thing 
in the cause of health is that which is represented by the word 
the first letter of which is “R.” I am going to tell you what 
that word is, even if the other gentlemen will not disclose theirs. 
In England many years ago, two very earnest young men while 
at college, determined to live carefully, and by a fixed series of 
daily habits. They did this, and it soon spread until millions 
adopted the name at least. They lived by a method; and were 
called Methodists; John and Charles Wesley. The greatest of 
all historians, Macaulay, said of them: 44 Their influence changed 
the face of English history .’’ Now I believe that regularity of 
habits, regularity of sleeping, regularity of eating, regularity 
of the functions of the body, and a daily system to live by, is 
the most powerful influence on health that can be found. I in¬ 
tended to write the word Regularity, but I thought it rather 
stiff sounding, so I used the finer word, Regime, having the same 
initial letter <4 R.” If our readers will turn to the latter part 


18 


Complete Life Building 

of this book, they will find a very large Section devoted to the 
famous Ralston Regime, which has been in private circulation, 
but never before included in any public book. It is a very 
delightful way in which and by which to live. 

So “R” could not keep his secret, and has let it out; thereby 
depriving you of the pleasure of surmising it. 

But do not forget to hunt up Ralston Regime in this book. 

“A”—This man has just as great a claim for priority as “R” 
but did not give all his reasons then. As time has passed and 
experience has ripened, he has had many more reasons for ad¬ 
hering to this claim for first place. He is a surgeon of the high¬ 
est rank in his profession. He says that not only what he has 
seen, but what many other surgeons have told him, and what he 
has read in reports, have proved to him the truth of the asser¬ 
tion made years ago that 999 persons out of every 1,000; or 
practically all human beings; are suffering from congestion of 
the stomach and membranes; and that their bodies are READY 
for sickness. By READY he says he does not mean, prepared to 
resist it, but READY in the same sense as land is ready for the 
plant when the soil is fit to receive and give growth to the plant. 

Practically every person’s body is ready to receive the germs 
of disease and give growth to them. 

“L” is another surgeon, and stated that he wished to confirm 
these facts. He liked the selection of the %ord READY as in¬ 
dicating that the human body was a fit subject for attack. His 
account of his interpretation of the meaning of this word 
READY is as follows: 

The part of the body that generates the life that sustains it is 
all in its membranes. The central section of the system of mem¬ 
branes is the stomach which is lined with membranes, and they 
carry the supplies for the digestion of food. It is exceedingly 
important to remember this one great fact: that the membranes 
of the stomach are the central part of the life-generating system, 
on which all else depends. And their condition determines what 
kind of nutrition is possible for the health of the rest of the 
body. The stomach membranes carry life or death to all the 
rest of the body. 

Then traveling downward through the long canal and around 
all the organs, is a complex system of membranes that reflects 
the condition of the membranes of the stomach. Bright’s Dis- 


Nature’s Doctors 


19 


ease of the kidneys, which is generally fatal, is nothing but the 
disease of the membranes that surround the kidneys. Appen¬ 
dicitis, that often results in death, is due to the disease of the 
membrane covering it, letting in foul matter; and when appen¬ 
dicitis is followed by death it is because this decay travels to 
the great membrane that lines the abdominal cavity and brings 
on peritonitis. All membrane diseases of prominence have words 
ending in it is. There are lots, of them. 

Now traveling upward from the stomach as a center, we fol¬ 
low the canal to the throat and mouth, and find more itis mala¬ 
dies; from gastritis of the stomach, to bronchitis of the lung 
passages, laryngitis of the throat, pharyngitis of the cavity back 
of the nose and mouth, and so on until we get to meningitis, the 
fatal disease of the membranes of the brain. 

“S” at this stage, who is perhaps a very thorough searcher 
after the deepest causes of sickness, adds the result of his 
observation: 

Out of hundreds of thousands of autopsies, it is agreed by 
doctors and surgeons that there has never been an exception to 
the discovery of a state of CONGESTION central at the stom¬ 
ach, which has spread along the membranes. 

This CONGESTION is a semi-inflammation; it is blind in¬ 
flammation because it gives no distinct pain, but manifests itself 
in a degree of irritability that affects the nerves and thinking 
powers. It produces unrest and an indefinable desire for some¬ 
thing that will change the regular routine of the day. If any¬ 
thing goes wrong, there is a sudden flight into the use of relief 
words, without knowing why they should be necessary. 

In autopsies, without exception, the stomach is congested, and 
shows unmistakable signs of having been congested for many 
years, possibly all through life. 

There is not one exception to this condition. 

Then following the line of the canal, it is seen that this con¬ 
gestion or semi-inflammation, has traveled downward nearly the 
whole length; and upward to the lung passages, to the throat, 
and often to the brain. For this reason, we find an explanation 
of the claims of experts in insanity that some forms of mental 
diseases are due to congestion of the stomach which has reached 
the brain membranes. 

“T” who has had much experience in this line of investiga- 


20 


Complete Life Building 

tion says: All congestion begins in the stomach for the reason 
that it cannot begin anywhere else. This is a very important 
fact. There are two classes of diseases; one comes from in¬ 
herited taint; the other from congestion. These are what are 
known as basic causes. They must exist before germs can attack 
the body. No germs will start sickness until they find a con¬ 
gested surface to light upon, and to start their rapid growth 
into what often are fatal maladies. Remove congestion and you 
remove diseases. Remove any form of congestion and you will 
never have any germs alive in your system, for they cannot live 
except on congested membranes when they invade the human 
body. This process cures all maladies, temporary or chronic, 
that are not the result of blood taint; and it holds in check 
almost all the maladies that arise from blood taint. 

“0” says that the study of congestion in autopsies is one of 
the most interesting in the effort to ascertain the cause of such 
a common malady as the grippe, which often runs into fatal 
pneumonia, and of the influenza, sore throat and common colds. 
The steps are as follows: 

1. There is stomach congestion; it may be intensified by some 
recent abuse, as of eating things that are not food; then the 
surface of the stomach takes on an angry color; this color creeps 
along upward and downward, hurting the liver and organs be¬ 
low; and in its upward course it involves not only the food pas¬ 
sage, but produces a very angry color in the throat where sore¬ 
ness follows; and this soreness travels all along the bronchial 
passages into the lungs; and still upward to the membranes of 
the brain, and headaches may follow, or the brain will take on a 
dizzy feeling as if it were floating. 

All the time this congestion, which could not start anywhere 
except in the stomach, is traveling its course, and there are sev¬ 
eral kinds of germs in the air waiting for the prospect of a 
feast; and these are: 

1. La Grippe. 

2. Coipmon Cold. 

3. Influenza. 

4. Pneumonia; three well known kinds are waiting. 

5. Diphtheria. 

6. Meningitis. 

7. Common sore throat ; and others. 


Nature’s Doctors 


21 


If there is no congestion anywhere, the gems are inhaled into 
the lungs and there are destroyed; having no visible means of 
support, and being unable to secure a livelihood, they succumb, 
lamenting the fate that deprived them of the congestion which is 
the soil on which they feed and thrive. 

Some of the germs get into the food and enter the stomach, 
where they help furnish sustenance for the body, just as big 
fish eat small live fish. This is the plan of nature, as a great 
expert on health said: either the germs will eat you or you must 
eat them. 

As in thousands of autopsies there has never been a single 
instance in which congestion was not present, it is now agreed 
by all doctors that every man, woman and child is the victim of 
this condition in greater or less degree. All persons have con¬ 
gestion of the stomach. If it is in mild form only, it does not 
spread far, and may not for years cause a cold or the grippe, or 
other trouble. But it makes the body READY for the germs, 
and sickness may fall on one without notice. 

Congestion not only invites germs unexpectedly, but gener¬ 
ates fatal conditions and poisons. The heart stops with a sud¬ 
denness that is alarming under its attack. A man who said he 
never felt better in his life, and who did not subject himself to 
any undue strain, fell dead in the middle of the forenoon, having 
no warning of the coming attack. Autopsy showed a very badly 
congested stomach as the only cause. Many a man is seemingly 
in perfect health to-day, and his summons comes in a flash. 
Many a woman is down without being warned by approaching 
symptoms. In all cases the cause that is known as the basic one 
is congestion of the stomach. 

Of thousands of cases of colitis and colonitis, or inflammation 
of the terminal of the alimentary canal, the only method of cure 
was to reduce the congestion; as the latter trouble was over¬ 
come in the stomach, the long line of congestion that had reached 
the whole length of the canal, was called in, or reduced in length 
until it soon left the terminal, and the conditions there were 
healed. On the other end of the line where chronic catarrh of the 
throat and nose persisted, and could not be cured by douches 
and other illogical methods, the Ralston system began by re¬ 
ducing the congested stomach’s irritation, something that medi¬ 
cal men, in many cases, never thought of; as the congested 


22 


Complete Life Building 

stomach began to heal, the far end of the congested line which 
was at the nose and throat began to improve; this calling in of 
the congestion continued until it had receded at the upper end, 
and no more catarrh existed there, nor at the throat after a 
while; it all disappeared. Why? Because you cannot have 
catarrh unless you have a congested membrane. 

Can congestion be cured? Yes. 

Always? Yes. 

Is it a permanent cure? As long as you stop abusing the 
stomach. 

How can one tell if there is congestion? By the simple fact 
that there is irritation of the nerves, unrest of the brain and life 
in the body, and feeling of pain in the stomach if you drink a 
glass of hot water. That will find it if the stomach is empty. 

But there is another way. 

If you catch cold, whether easily or rarely, that is the first 
step of congestion. With this trouble absent in the stomach, it 
is as impossible to catch cold, as it is to swallow the Washing¬ 
ton Monument. 

Do you mean to say that there is no congestion of any part of 
the body unless it starts in the stomach? Yes. The proofs are 
so many that the subject is beyond discussion. There have been 
thousands of autopsies where the congestion has been confined 
almost wholly to the stomach; but no case where it existed in 
another part of the body and did not in the stomach at the same 
time. 

In the city of Washington, forty thousand persons had the 
grippe in the same week, and in the season ninety percent of 
the population had it; and if there had not been a single case 
of congested stomach, there would not have been a case of 
grippe, or cold, or pneumonia. 

Does it pay to fight disease at its source ? 

What was true of the city mentioned was true of all other 
cities and localities. The grippe leaves a person weak and hurt 
against other maladies later on. Influenza almost always does 
permanent injury to the heart or lungs. Why suffer from them 
unnecessarily? If they are unnecessary, are you not paying a 
fine when you endure them, and subjecting others who care for 
you to the payment of fines ? 

“N” has the final word in the battle against disease and 


Nature’s Doctors 


23 


sickness. He has been anxious to make known the word that 
begins with the letter “N” so that he can maintain his conten¬ 
tion that it is the most important influence in life and health; 
so he now gives the information that the word is “N”ature. In 
his opinion all doctors who achieve the highest success in help¬ 
ing their patients rely as much as possible on Nature. If this 
power is withdrawn there is no hope for the sick. 

He says that congestion is undoubtedly the cause of all illness 
except that which comes from ancestral misdeeds. 

This fact being universally accepted, he says that if the food 
of the human race were the kind that Nature has ordered, con¬ 
gestion would be impossible; and here he is right; and all learned 
investigators agree with him. Congestion has no other origin 
than the use of food contrary to the commands of Nature. 

Here we are getting to the pith of the truth, to the very heart 
of the knowledge of disease and of its remedy. 

It is admitted on all sides that disease cannot be acquired by 
any human being unless it first comes from congestion. 

It is admitted that congestion is the result of foods contrary 
to the commands of Nature. 

This system of Life Building will prove that when we obey 
the commands of Nature, in our food selection, we wall forever 
drive away all congestion; most foods now are crimes against 
Nature; then they will be in accord with the plan of Nature. 

When the race adopts the foods of Nature, known in this 
work as the TRUE FOODS, then all congestion will disappear; 
and with it will go every itis malady, curing diseases that are 
apparently incurable, and setting free the people who have been 
in bondage all these years and all these centuries to the mistakes 
and errors of ignorance. 

“N M then seems to have sustained his contention; and it is 
probable that Nature must be accorded the first place in any 
system of cure. Here it is the climax of all knowledge and of 
all helpfulness. 

By examining the lists of foods eaten by humanity we see at 
once the cause of congestion; the reason why 999 persons out of 
every 1000 are READY soil for germs of disease, which is the 
same in lesser degree as being READY for the undertaker. 

All persons receive inspiration from the experiences of those 
whose judgment and success entitle them to the highest respect. 


24 


Complete Life Building 


Thomas A. Edison, the world’s greatest inventor, is a man whose 
mind is one of the deepest and keenest on earth; and whose opin¬ 
ions sway millions rightfully. Edison is nearly eighty years old. 
To quote his exact words, “My grandfather, early in his life, be¬ 
came fascinated with the story of the great Venetian, Louis 
Cornaro, who, when he found himself a wreck in middle life, 
reformed his diet, and by keeping it right, managed to live more 
than a hundred years. My grandfather after that ate carefully, 
and lived to be one hundred and four. No disease killed him. 
He was perfectly well up to the time that he died. He 
lost interest in life. The cells of which his body was com¬ 
posed were anxious to get away. So my grandfather told his 
children that he was going to his daughter’s house to die. He 
went to her house; undressed; went to bed; and died . There 
was nothing the matter with him. He was simply tired of life. 
And my father died the same way. They had found that the 
secret of long life and perfect health lay in right eating. As for 
me, I eat only because I want to live. As a result, my body is 
not poisoned with decaying, surplus food. My arteries are as 
soft as a child's.” 

The foregoing statement is taken from a published account of 
his family written by himself. Later on in this work we shall 
discuss the same principles. 

But what has been said shows conclusively that the only road 
to health is that prescribed by Nature; which, summed up, is 
this: stop abusing the body by transgressions of the laws of Na¬ 
ture ; heal the injured parts; and keep them perfect in all the 
years to come; then there will be found the true enjoyment of 
living. 



Nature’s Doctors 


25 


THE GREAT RALSTON DISCOVERIES 

Because we have never advertised, but have worked out our 
problems in silence, we have never been given the credit for the 
achievements that have marked the progress of our course 
through the fifty years of our existence. 

In this, the COMPLETE WORK of the Club, it is right 
that we should refer to some of the leading discoveries that have 
been made through our efforts. With Regents at our command 
by the thousands, each Regent controlling a large following, it 
is not difficult to put in motion any great test that we choose to 
make. Theories have their value, and are often sure of be¬ 
lievers, if they seem to be founded in reason; but facts are of 
greater importance for they tell the truth. 

By making tests in all parts of the civilized world, not among 
a few score of people, but by the aid of hundreds of thousands 
of men and women, and continuing those tests until uniform 
proofs have been secured, it is possible to reach the goal of all 
true investigation,—FACTS. 

To show the value of the new knowledge attained we will men¬ 
tion some of our leading discoveries: 

1. It was the Ralston Health Club that discovered that nine¬ 
teen cases out of every twenty of rheumatism can be cured by 
the omission of certain kinds of food. 

2. It was the Ralston Health Club that discovered that nearly 
every case of diabetes was due to liver poisons found in drinking 
water that had come from surface drainage, as in rivers, lakes, 
ponds and similar sources; and that a cure came not from diet¬ 
ing but from using other kinds of water. 

3. It was the Ralston Health Club that discovered that asthma 
originated from congestion of the stomach, and could be cured 
by removing this cause. 

4. It was the Ralston Health Club that discovered that the 
so-called incurable hay fever and kindred maladies, were due to 
lack of calcium chloride in the blood; and universal cures are 
now in progress by the use of foods that contain these needed 
elements. 

5. It was the Ralston Health Club that discovered that 
anemia, the forerunner of tuberculosis, was due to an unbal¬ 
anced diet; that is, foods no matter how abundant and whole- 


26 


Complete Life Building 

some that contain only a part of the daily needs of the body; 
and making clear the difference between plenty to eat with cer¬ 
tain elements lacking, and less to eat with all elements present. 

6. It was the Ralston Health Club that discovered that the 
human hair could not grow from food that contained none of 
the elements that are required to make hair. This kind of test 
was so satisfactory that we will show how it was conducted. In 
thousands of cases where the hair was falling out, it was learned 
that the food eaten daily contained almost none of the elements 
that are needed to make hair grow; but when a complete food 
was eaten daily, the hair in every instance stopped its losses and 
began to grow. The same law holds true in raising wheat or 
anything else. If you plant wheat in land from which all wheat¬ 
making elements have been exhausted, you will not get a crop; 
but if in the same land you put soil elements that feed wheat, 
you will have success. Millions of people to-day are shampoo¬ 
ing their scalp and cleaning it uselessly, doing it more harm 
than good, and yet are losing their hair; while other millions are 
applying endless varieties of restoratives without results, when 
the only thing needed besides normal cleanliness is a daily diet 
that is completely balanced, containing among all other essen¬ 
tials the food elements that grow hair. 

7. It was the Ralston Health Club that discovered that men¬ 
tal weakness in children, and feeble-mindedness in old age were 
due to an unbalanced diet in which the elements that sustain 
mental vigor were lacking; that such a diet will rob the heart of 
its energy, produce shattered nerves and lessen the vitality of 
every faculty; for all these parts must be fed with life-sustain¬ 
ing foods in order to do their work. 

8. It was the Ralston Health Club that discovered that cancer, 
while based on blood taint inherited or acquired, was excited into 
growth by depriving the blood of its power to build true tissue; 
that cancer is a false tissue growth into which the taint men¬ 
tioned is drawn; and that the inability of the blood to build true 
tissue is due to a poison in the air entering the lungs which 
cripples the blood by failing to purify it as it enters the heart; 
and that this air-poison is caused by tobacco smoke which is in¬ 
haled; just as rubbing tobacco on a fresh scratch or raw part 
of the body has caused cancer to develop at such places. 

9. It was the Ralston Health Club that discovered that the 


Nature’s Doctors 


27 


ripening of the body in old age is due to the dregs left in food 
and liquids in cooking, whereby the distillation is boiled away 
and the refuse remains in the food and liquids; that the reversal 
of this process always results in preserving the body against the 
tendency to ripen and become decrepit. 

10. It was the Ralston Health Club that discovered that the 
desire for stimulants was the crying out of the tortured nerves 
for something to satisfy their cravings; that this torture was in 
every instance the result of food-poisons; and when these poisons 
were no longer present, it was impossible to induce people to use 
stimulants of any kind. Thousands of cases of alcoholism have 
been cured permanently by this simple method. What is prob¬ 
ably the most important section of this book is devoted to a de¬ 
scription of food poisons that are in daily use; and that section 
should be read and re-read many times, for it lays the founda¬ 
tion of the battle for perfect health. 

11. It was the Ralston Health Club that discovered that the 
circulation of the blood depends on the stimulating power given 
the heart by the upper part of the spinal column, and that this 
power is increased by the action of stretching that part of the 
spinal column in an effort to raise the top of the head an inch 
higher than it is usually carried. Nor is there any substitute for 
this action. In thousands of experiments made by people who 
suffer from cold extremities, cold hands and feet, life and 
warmth have been brought to them by this seemingly simple 
action. But when combined with deep breathing of pure out¬ 
door air, the result is a clear complexion, natural color to the 
face, brighter eyes and better vision. The explanation is as easy 
as the action. By tracing back the nerves whose flow of vitality 
feeds the heart, we find these nerves leading to the upper por¬ 
tion of the spinal column. So do the nerves that control breath¬ 
ing. So do the nerves that control digestion. It is all wonderful. 

12. It was the Ralston Health Club that discovered through 
its fifty years of tests and experiments that disease is the result 
of constant contact with poisons; and that if these poisons can 
be controlled no human being will ever die of disease: 

That pure water is essential to health, but that most water 
is a poison, while pure water is the first and most important 
body builder. 

That all the so-called foods are of two classes ; unwholesome and 


28 


Complete Life Building 

wholesome; that the first class is always a poison, and the whole¬ 
some foods if deprived of their complete parts become a poison, 
or if improperly cooked are likewise a poison. 

That when air has been inhaled and has done its work and has 
been exhaled it is a poison and fatal to life no matter how pure 
it was when it entered the body, showing that a fatal poison is be¬ 
ing removed from contact with the body, 

That when water has been taken in the body and has done its 
work and is on its way out, it is a poison fatal to life, whether 
driven out by the kidneys or through the skin or lungs, showing 
that a fatal poison is being removed from contact with the body. 

That when food of the most wholesome kind and perfectly 
cooked has entered the body and has done its work, and either 
remains in the body as in constipation, or is on its way out, it is 
a poison fatal to life, showing that the body is a container of 
this danger or else is in constant contact with it; and Nature, 
the wise mother of us all, gives to this spent food a stench that 
compels all decent people to put it beyond the reach of the nos¬ 
trils in order that it may be beyond the reach of the body. Even 
the daintiest, purest, most delicate morsels of food, after diges¬ 
tion, become a horrible filth. How ? Why ? For what purpose ? 

Humanity lives in constant contact with poisons of every 
character. 

Our Club has proved that if these poisons can be controlled, 
the man or woman who controls them cannot die of disease, for 
there is no disease that can attack that man or that woman. 

CONGESTION comes from wrong foods, or false foods as 
they are called. 

Poisons come from any foods that are not properly cooked; 
good or bad; and from allowing them, after they have done their 
work, to remain in the body. Now we see the union of the first 
and last words of the Round Table of 1876: Regime, or Regular¬ 
ity, to begin with; and Nature to stay with. By Regime it be¬ 
comes impossible to lock up poisons in the body. 

More than this and best of all, when the TRUE FOOD'S are 
selected, the work required of Regime is very materially les¬ 
sened. In nine cases out of every ten, the TRUE FOODS will 
of themselves take care of the poisons and keep them from 
accumulating. 



SECOND SECTION 


DISEASE AND DEATH AND 
THE RALSTON TREATMENT 



“OST PERSONS who read this book will be unable to 
undertake the building of a new body, on account of 
organic troubles or other chronic conditions that 
have already secured a hold on them. When there 
is trouble in any one department of life, there 
should be concentrated attention as the first step to be taken. 
When such attention can be accompanied by the process of 
building the body anew, or when the latter step can be used as 
the means of cure, it will help matters very much to combine 
these measures with the suggestions that are now to be given. 

Doctors say that ninety-five men and women in every hun¬ 
dred have some organic or chronic disease, either developed, or 
in process of developing. 

In seventy percent of people the liver is hardening. 

The germs of tuberculosis are in the lungs of eighty-five per¬ 
cent of all men and women. 

Eighty persons in every hundred have weak or erratic heart 
action. 

Painless, or blind, inflammation of the stomach, which is a 
source of the gravest danger, is present in ninety-nine percent 
of all persons; only one in a hundred being free from it. 

Sixty percent of the people are candidates for appendicitis, 
requiring only acute conditions to develop the disease without 
warning. 

29 









30 


Complete Life Building 

A high official of the United States Government recently made 
the following statement: “The medical examination required 
of the men drafted in the war has disclosed the surprising unfit¬ 
ness of the nation as a whole. If the strict standards of health 
were adhered to, it would be the hardest kind of a task to muster 
in even one division. It is to be hoped that hereafter the people 
will seek better health, if not for the purposes of war, at least 
to enable them to enjoy life and its blessings.” 

As paralysis, heart failure, neurasthenia, stomach troubles and 
kidney diseases are almost sure to follow the use of pills, drugs 
and medicines, it is important that we obtain, if possible, some 
course of natural treatment that shall remove the dangers of 
disease without inviting other and more serious consequences. 

To start with let us adhere to the basic rule which says: 

“Let Nature Take Its Course if you wish a Safe and Perma- 
nant Cure.” 

THE BATTLE OF LIFE—PAST AND PRESENT 

1. Man did not appear on this earth first, and his food after¬ 
wards. If he had, he would have starved to death on the day 
of his birth. 

2. His food was waiting for him when he arrived. This could 
not be an accident of nature; it was the result of deliberation 
and design by some controlling power. Can you guess what? 

3. Strange to say, his food for the main part was wheat. And 
strange to say, wheat was the only food that grew on earth that 
contained all the elements needed to wholly sustain and nourish 
the human body. 

4. Before man came, some controlling power had produced the 
one animal kind that furnishes the first food of life: milk. Had 
the cow followed instead of preceded man, he could not have 
raised his young after its mother had done her part; for no race 
has ever been reared without milk, and its products, cream and 
butter, all essential to the growth of the body. 

5. Ere man came, some controlling power had caused the 
grape to grow; the fruit that best furnishes iron and vital ele¬ 
ments needed by the body. 

6. There are parts of the world where wheat is not found, but 
in its place a number of foods combined serve to make a substi- 


Nature’s Doctors 


31 


tute; but it is a peculiar fact that nowhere on earth does human¬ 
ity give promise of a high civilization except in the wheat pro¬ 
ducing countries. This grain is the whole man: brain, nerves, 
muscles, blood and organic life; all at their best. 

7. There is no nation with a history that does not recite in its 
pages from the earliest dawn of its existence the story of bread 
making, and the story of its vineyard; and we read of the great 
promise to the people who were forty years in the wilderness 
seeking the promised land that was flowing with milk and honey. 

8. Milk and bread build the body and its brain; but honey 
and cane sugar furnish the energy that accomplishes things in 
life: physical, nervous and mental power. These blessings also 
awaited the arrival of man. 

9. It is not difficult to look back to the earliest period of 
human life; to that vague era of pre-historic man, or what our 
humorists choose to call the “cave man.” He was ignorant be¬ 
cause he was inexperienced. He did not know anything about 
wheat, or other things that had been provided as food; so he 
proceeded to eat his own kind of life; and he ate it raw. His 
teeth were tusks; his fingers were claws; and he devoured ani¬ 
mals much as dogs do to-day, gnawing the bones clear to the 
marrow, and for the marrow, which was a delicate morsel for 
him. 

10. After his evening meal, he turned over to his wife and 
children such portions as his bulky stomach could not hold; and 
as they gnawed the bones and tore the flesh with their tusks and 
claws, he sat on a slope of ground facing the western sky and 
saw the sun slowly sink to rest, while the gentle southern 
zephyrs fanned his heated brow, and lulled him into a contem¬ 
plative mood that looked into the far distant future. He said to 
himself: “I am the climax of creation; the last word in mental 
and physical supremacy. Ages may follow; generations may 
come after me; but never in all the vast passing of time shall 
there come on earth so noble a being as myself.’’ 

11. But how far wrong was he in his reasoning? He was 
ignorant of the uses of wheat, of other civilizing foods, and of 
the manner of living in many other respects. The ancient pre¬ 
historic being had no dentists; we have several hundred thou¬ 
sand. He had no doctors; we have two millions. He had no hos¬ 
pitals ; we have them everywhere. He had no surgeons inviting 


32 


Complete Life Building 

him to come in and be cut open; we have six hundred thousand. 
He had no pill boxes; to-day a trainload, carrying fifty freight 
cars, is required to haul to suffering humanity each twenty-four 
hours, the pills with which they poison their blood. He had no 
drugs, no medicines, no patent remedies; it takes daily five hun¬ 
dred freight cars to transport to our fellow beings these other 
poisons they demand. 

12. He had no maladies except one; which was the stomach¬ 
ache. We have so many maladies that a great library of thou¬ 
sands of books is required to name and describe them. In fact 
it takes twenty thousand words apart from those in common use 
to convey the meaning of the medical parlance. If you were to 
stand on the roof of the tallest building in any large city, and 
send a projectile at random a hundred feet or a hundred yards, 
or a mile or several miles, no matter in what direction, the 
chances are that your projectile would land on or in the vicinity 
of a drug store; and a second one so hurled might drop on the 
front door steps of a doctor’s office. 

13. Millions of dollars are spent every year in the name of 
modern medical science for the sole purpose of lessening human 
suffering. While more people to-day reach the age of ninety 
than ever before in known history, the average age of the others 
has decreased instead of having lengthened, as is claimed. The 
Ralston Club in the past fifty years has done most of the work 
in extending the span of life, and in reducing premature death; 
and had its influence not been at work, the average age jvould 
have been much lower than it now is. 

14. It is true that many maladies take a lower toll of life than 
ever before; but, on the other hand, the following diseases are 
on the increase, and have been steadily growing into a greater 
menace for several generations: 

Insanity. 

Paresis. 

Cancer. 

Kidney diseases. 

Heart failure. 

Stomach troubles. 

Pneumonia. 

Neuritis. 

Nervous Prostration. 


Nature’s Doctors 


33 


Acute Indigestion. 

Apoplexy. 

Appendicitis. 

Influenza or grippe. 

Paralysis. 

Hay Fever. 

Rheumatism. 

15. Of these sixteen diseases, all except paresis, cancer and 
most forms of insanity can be traced directly to the kinds of 
food eaten by humanity. Nervous prostration is due to the 
noise and distractions of city life especially during the hours of 
supposed sleep at night, which is only a semi-sleep, during which 
the repair of the nerves is impossible. Cancer is now known to 
be derived from two sources; and these generally act together. 
Eighty percent of cancer comes from inherited syphilitic blood 
taint; twenty percent of cancer originates from the inhalation 
of tobacco smoke into the lungs, or from contact with tobacco 
in some form, with the probability that the same blood taint has 
come down from a past generation. Paresis of the brain follows 
the same taint when combined with the influence of tobacco. 
Insanity is generally inherited, or due to body poisons or con¬ 
gestion. 

16. The other twelve diseases are all due and easily traceable 
to the kinds of food eaten; and they, with many more, consti¬ 
tute the basis of this present work. You will probably die of 
one of the following maladies; that is, assuming that you are 
free from the class just mentioned above: 

Apoplexy, due to blood pressure. 

Kidney disease, due to excessive eating of foods that the kid¬ 
neys cannot pass. 

Paralysis, due to tea drinking, or the use of medicines that 
deaden the nerves. 

Pneumonia. 

These are probabilities only. But as the vast majority of 
people who are not in the cancer class are dying of one of these 
four diseases, the law of chances would indicate that here you 
would find your fate if you do not take steps to head it off. 

To-day many doctors divide invalids into two classes: 

1. The Cancer Class. 

2. The Congested Class. 


34 


Complete Life Building 

By the Cancer Class is meant those people who inherit tainted 
blood, which if it does not turn in time to cancer, will show it¬ 
self in some form of blood disorder, or a malady that has its 
source in the misdeeds of ancestors, such as epilepsy, loco-motor 
ataxia, paresis and insanity. All these troubles are fully dealt 
with in this volume. 

The other class that suffer from ill health, are the victims of 
Congestion, which has been partly described in preceding pages, 
but which will be very fully discussed later on. 

But there is one malady that seems to be regarded as of re¬ 
cent origin, and that is neuritis; yet it is wholly due to bad ele¬ 
ments that are eaten as food or with food; principally where 
chemicals are employed as preservatives. We live in an age of 
canned goods, and must take the preservatives with the food; 
hence neuritis has its cause; but even then it acts on the body 
through the congestion that it causes. 

We find one malady that is apart from the others in the fact 
that it is not caused by congestion or inherited taint. We have 
referred to it as the city disease, nervous prostration, *or neuras¬ 
thenia. Yet in treating this trouble for many years, it has been 
found to yield to the cure of congestion; that is, when all con¬ 
gestion has left the membranes, the distraction of city noises 
will have much less effect on the nerves and the brain. 

We like the divisions of diseases that a prominent doctor has 
made very recently, into the following Classes: 

1. Nervous Prostration, being the same as Neurasthenia. 

2. Inherited Taint; including Cancer, active or dormant; 
tumors, ulcers, abscesses, epilepsy, loco-motor ataxia, infantile 
paralysis, paresis and many forms of insanity. All these and 
other blood disorders have their origin in the misdeeds of 
ancestors. 

3. Congestion diseases, which include all those long lists of 
maladies that keep printers busy publishing them, and medical 
schools active in describing them, 

Here is the BATTLE GROUND of LIFE and DEATH. 

In a nutshell of statement, if you escape chronic congestion in 
its intensified form, you will avoid most if not all diseases that 
have their origin in inherited taint. And congestion is con¬ 
trolled by what you eat. You can eat to rid yourself of it; or 
to invite it. 


THIRD SECTION 


HOW LIFE IS BUILT 


E WILL NOW leave the dry studies that are pre¬ 
sented in the preceding pages of this book, and 
come to the simple facts that the most recent dis¬ 
coveries have brought to light. These will prove 
interesting, as well as important. 

The first American medical scientist to win the Nobel prize of 
forty thousand dollars, achieved his triumph because of his dis¬ 
covery of the process of life and death within the human body, 
which process he was able to carry on outside the body in the 
creation, maintenance and deathless renewal of tissue such as 
the human body is built of. 

For many years, and especially in the last five or six years, 
many scientific men have been experimenting along the same 
lines, and the results all tend to one triumph, which is the solv¬ 
ing in part of the great riddle of life and death in the body. 

To-day, in the very year that you are reading this page, life 
and death activities are being carried on in the great institutes 
that the multimillionaires of the world have endowed for the 
purpose. 

The knowledge of things is being, revolutionized. 

We stand on the threshold of a new era. 

In entering upon the explanation of the facts which, if applied 
to your own life, would so change you that you would regard 
the result as a miracle performed in an age of miraculous prog- 

35 



























36 


Complete Life Building 

ress, we fear that the subject will, to some extent, seem so deep 
that you will not grasp its meaning. 

But we will proceed without the use of scientific language, 
and with the simplest words suited to the everyday minds. In 
many of our descriptions we step aside from the usual medical 
terms, and adopt those that are popular instead. If, therefore, 
tho same words that occur in official reports are not repeated 
here, you will understand that the change is made so that 
millions of people who have not been educated up to medical 
terms will know just what we mean. 

The most important of recent discoveries is the fact that each 
part of the human body does its own work in its own way, to a 
large degree independent of every other part. The following 
experiments were conducted in various institutes, and by the 
most advanced of scientific discoverers. 

In each experiment they had two things: 

1. Food in the form of blood that had been built out of the 
fourteen elements under the GREAT LAW OF LAWS which 
we have described in the following Section of this book. 

2. Some part of a vital organ, or separate portion of the body. 

When we say that food was given to such part, we refer 

always to blood containing the fourteen elements. On the same 
principle a mother who is nursing a child may give to the child 
her own blood in the form of milk; and milk is one step in the 
making of blood; and such milk may be the product of perfect 
food selection as already described. The child so fed would be 
immune against every form of sickness and distress, as has been 
proved in thousands of cases. 

FIRST EXPERIMENT. “Beginning of Life” 

Life begins in a single cell. 

By feeding this cell at the temperature of the human body, 
it is made to absorb the food offered it, and to grow. Its growth 
takes place by wrapping itself about a tiny portion of the food, 
absorbing it, and then splitting itself into halves; each half be¬ 
ing a new cell. Each one of these new cells proceeds in the 
same way; one cell becomes two; two become four; four become 
eight; eight become sixteen; and so on until in about twenty 
such generations there will be a million cells grown from one. 


Nature’s Doctors 


37 


All these generations cannot be bom in one minute. It is in this 
way that every part of the human body is being built every 
second of time. It is also in this way that disease takes rapid 
possession of the body, for most diseases spring from germ cells. 

SECOND EXPERIMENT. “Making Bones” 

Two pieces of a bone taken from an animal that had recently 
died, were made the subject of tests in growth. 

The first piece was laid away in cold storage where it would 
not decay; and there it was kept for months. 

The second piece was placed at once on the slide of a micro¬ 
scope and was fed with fresh blood, while the warmth of the 
human body, nearly one hundred degrees, was maintained stead¬ 
ily. It was a piece of a live bone. 

Instead of absorbing from the blood all the contents of the 
latter, it chose such parts as were required to make bone; and 
nothing else. 

Live bone is composed of live cells; the interior is different 
from the shell or surface of the bone; but the process of selection 
went on to suit the demands of each part. 

The food on which the bone fed was blood taken from a man 
who himself had been fed on all the fourteen elements required 
to make perfect blood. As long as such food was given to the 
bone it continued the work of creating bone cells by which it 
added to itself. 

Blood taken from another man whose food had been perfect 
except that it lacked the elements that make bone, was fed to 
this piece of bone; and it refused to take any part of it; it simply 
stopped growing, and would soon have died had not the former 
food been given it. 

There are millions of children suffering from rickets, or from 
curvature of the spine, or from bow-legs or other form of weak 
or soft bones, or similar deficiencies, that might be easily cured, 
as many thousands have been cured, by feeding them with a 
perfect food under the GREAT LAW OF LAWS. 

In continuing this experiment with the piece of fresh bone, 
after the perfect food had been again given it and it had again 
begun to grow vigorously, the following articles were added in 
turn to the perfect blood: Lard in very small proportion; pas- 


38 


Complete Life Building 

try; tomato; fried potato; fresh bread; and vinegar; in every 
instance, when such addition was made, even the smallest frac¬ 
tion of a drop, the bone stopped growing and would have suf¬ 
fered death. 

The final part of this experiment consisted in breathing a very 
small bit of tobacco smoke upon the bone: it not only stopped 
growing, but actually died; nothing that could be done had the 
power to revive it. 

The second part of the same experiment was made with the 
mate to this piece of bone; the piece that was laid away in cold 
storage where it would not decay. It remained there for six 
months. When taken out and brought at once to the tempera¬ 
ture of the body, and given pure food as in the case of the piece 
just described, it showed the same signs of life as did the fresh 
piece; it grew as well, thrived and added to itself, just the 
same; and suffered from the setbacks and final death just as 
did its mate. The main value in this second part of the experi¬ 
ment is to establish the fact that the bone, as long as it does not 
begin to decay, has locked up in its cells the life-building power 
that is possessed in the living man or woman. Given the food 
that contains the bone-making elements, it will go on making 
bone material, whether in a living body, or outside of it. 

The things in food that will cause a setback to the piece of 
bone will, it has been proved, do the same injury in life itself; 
hence we find one of the prevailing causes of disease: the lack 
of all the fourteen elements in the food we eat. 

If a man is shot through the heart, the blood will stop circu¬ 
lating, and its contents cannot then be carried to the various 
parts of the body; but his bones are all alive, and will remain 
alive until they die of starvation. If the food could be carried 
to them, every bone in his body would not only live, but would 
keep on growing as fast as they required new growth to renew 
them; and this process would continue until the decay that was 
being set up in the other parts of the body had overwhelmed 
them. 

It has been proved that the bones will, if supplied with food, 
live on and on indefinitely, unless clogged by foreign material! 
which means by matter contained in the blood that is not one of 
the fourteen elements. The ripening and hardening of the bones 


Nature’s Doctors 


39 

which attend old age, and indeed mark it, are due to the pres¬ 
ence of unnecessary material in the food. 

THIRD EXPERIMENT. “Making Skin” 

Two pieces of live skin were obtained. One was put in cold 
storage for six months. 

The other was placed upon the slide of the microscope as soon 
as it was taken from the body. 

Like bone, skin is made up of countless cells, like the cells of 
vegetation. Plant life and animal life have the same basis or 
beginning in cells. 

The skin, while made of such cells, requires the most intricate 
weaving to produce its several layers, its pores, its pumping en¬ 
gines which enable- it to carry on perspiration, and its shell or 
cuticle for final protection at the surface: a most wonderful 
elaboration of growth. But each skin-cell is charged yrith the 
impulse to produce all these results. 

Bone is made of some dements that must be in the blood and 
must come from the food we eat; skin is made of other elements, 
unlike those that make bone, but just as necessary. Thus the ele¬ 
ments in food that will make bones will not make skin; and the 
elements that make skin will not make bone. 

When this piece of live- skin was fed to the food that sustained 
it, it began to make new cells; but they were skin-cells; not bone 
cells. The piece of skin had selected exactly what elements it 
needed, and had left the rest, some of them possibly for making 
bones. What was> most extraordinary, the food selected was 
woven at once by the skin into additional skin; and so it grew. 

This growing piece of skin was checked and setback when 
lard, tomato, fried food, pastry, fresh bread, vinegar or any 
similar non-food material was added; and it died at once when 
the slightest breath of tobacco fumes was exhaled over it. 

The second half of this experiment was made with the mate 
to this piece of skin, the part that had been placed for six months 
in cold storage to keep it from decay. It was given warmth and 
food, and grew in the same manner as did its mate; and was 
set back by non-food material, and killed by tobacco smoke. 

If a man is shot through the heart, the blood will stop circu- 


40 


Complete Life Building 

lating, and its contents will not be carried to the various parts 
of the body, but his bones are all alive and his skin is all alive; 
and they will remain alive until they die of starvation. If food 
and warmth could be conveyed to them they would not only 
live, but would continue to grow indefinitely as long as demand 
could be made upon them for growth. 

.There are two causes of skin diseases: 

1. The lack of food elements required to build the skin, is the 
first cause and a common one; for it means that foreign material 
is sure to be present which will lead to defects of many kinds. 

2. But the most common cause of skin troubles is the presence 
in the food of elements not required to build any part of the 
body. They seek to find lodgment in the channels of escape, 
which are the pores, and here they set up irritations such as 
boils, abscesses, carbuncles, hives, and countless skin sores and 
maladies; depending on the kind of foreign material that is 
added to the food from day to day. An excess of a needed ele¬ 
ment will also cause troubles in this class; as when pork fat is 
eaten, and boils follow; the carbon in pork fat is needed, but 
can be better secured in cream or butter, which will not produce 
boils. 

It has been amply proved that the use of only the proper ele¬ 
ments and in the proper proportion, will lead to the making of a 
perfect skin, but also to the making of a perfect COM¬ 
PLEXION. 

The woman of bad complexion is daily putting into the stom¬ 
ach material in food or drink, as tea and coffee under the latter 
head, that poison the skin-making cells and lead to imperfect 
structure. For nearly fifty years we have proved, as a fact and 
never as a mere theory, that the finest complexions can be ob¬ 
tained from perfect food selection under the GREAT LAW OF 
LAWS. 

FOURTH EXPERIMENT. “Scalp and Hair Growth” 

Since the last edition of this work was published, a number of 
notable experiments have been made with pieces of scalp. 

Two pieces were taken, as in the case of the bones and skin. 

One piece was put in cold storage; the other was at once used, 
and was given warmth and food containing the elements that 


Nature’s Doctors 


41 


produce scalp and hair. When such food was continued the 
cells of the scalp not only produced more cells of its kind but 
also cells of hair, which grew rapidly. 

When food was given it from a man whose diet was devoid 
of the needed hair-making elements, the scalp went on growing, 
but produced only scalp which was BALD. The hair that had 
grown became weak in the course of time, and fell out. On 
restoring food that contained the hair-making material, the bald 
scalp began, after a length of time, to produce hair. 

It is needless to say that the non-foods referred to under the 
Second and Third Experiments, led to similar disasters in this 
case. 

There are many instances among people who live on the 
plainer foods which invariably contain hair-making material in 
abundance, who have died, and whose bodies have been exhumed 
months and years after, and a long growth of hair has been 
found upon them. The body of one woman is on exhibition 
showing ten feet of hair length much of which was grown after 
death; and men with long beards have likewise been taken from 
their graves who died beardless. 

The important fact is that the various parts of the body do 
not die until such parts are denied food material and warmth 
needed to maintain growth. As hair does not require warmth 
in order fo grow, it goes on adding to its length in the cold 
ground after death, and until the last available material is be¬ 
yond its reach. Another wonderful fact is that, in the grave, 
the flesh and skin are taken possession of by bacteria of decay, 
that undoubtedly pass and repass many times throughout the 
whole mass, and thus convey to the scalp the hair-making mate¬ 
rial on which the hair grows. On no other theory can we ac¬ 
count for the well-proved fact that the hair does in fact grow 
after death. 

Based on this experiment, many persons have been taking ad¬ 
vantage of the new knowledge by adopting a perfect food selec¬ 
tion consisting of the fourteen elements called for under the 
GREAT LAW OF LAWS, lacking none and adding none not 
needed; with the result that all parts of the body are being built 
in perfection. 

This is the new method of living. 


42 Complete Life Building 

FIFTH EXPERIMENT. “Stomach, Kidneys, Liver, Lungs” 

On each of four different slides, was placed a part of some 
organ; on one, a piece of stomach; on another, a piece of kid¬ 
ney ; on a third, a piece of liver; on the fourth a piece of lung 
mass. 

The same food was given to all of them; that is, each had a 
portion of blood from the same person taken at the same time, 
so there, could be no difference in the food. 

The piece of stomach selected for its growth such parts of the 
food as were required by it, and it proceeded to build more of 
its kind. 

The kidney built only kidney material, which was unlike the 
others, showing that it made its selection from the food supplied, 
and that there must be contained in each cell an intelligence 
created to do this choosing. 

The piece of liver selected its own kind, and built nothing 
but liver. 

The lungs kept within their own demands. 

Prior to this most wonderful and amazing experiment, scien¬ 
tists would have asserted that the tissue of any organ would 
have built merely a general mass of tissue, having no separate 
character; merely a collection of cells. It was believed that out¬ 
side the living body the tissue would have lost its individual 
nature. But it was remembered that the rose bush will select 
from the earth the material to make roses; and from the same 
earth the onion will select material to make the onion; the apple 
tree the material to make the apple; and so on, each kind cling¬ 
ing to its own mission. 

To see tissue wholly separated from its place in a living or¬ 
ganism, lying on a slide with no connection with any form of 
life except itself, to see such tissue working diligently to make 
more of its special kind under these circumstances was indeed 
amazing. 


SIXTH EXPERIMENT. “Making Brains” 

The brain is a great nervous center. 

In the act of thinking it throbs, and with each thought there 
is a fluid that rushes over its surface. This fact has been known 
for many years. 


Nature’s Doctors 


43 


Each brain section is an engine that, like the heart, carries 
on its action when in nse, at which time it vibrates and throbs. 

For fifty years scientific writers on diet, as well as physicians, 
have discussed the question of brain foods, and it has been 
thought by some that foods containing phosphorus in combina¬ 
tion should be eaten. The reason for this supposition rests in 
the fact that has been well proved that brain workers show 
great waste of this element after great mental strain. Thus on 
Mondays, after important sermons on the Sundays preceding, 
preachers do in fact eliminate unusual quantities of this ele¬ 
ment. So tests have shown thqt any great mental effort has 
been followed by the same waste of phosphorus, whether in stu¬ 
dents, lawyers after trials, or any class of mental workers. 
Coupled with this well-known fact, was the other fact that these 
men who used the. brain so severely, craved certain kinds of 
food, such as salmon, trout, and meats rich in the element. 
Putting these two facts together, it was assumed that brain 
foods must contain phosphorus; and the result was that there 
was offered for sale what were known as “brain foods.” 

The next step was to make the claim that the brain was given 
life and power in unusual degree by such a diet. 

All these questions may be considered settled in the light of 
the following experiment. 

A section of brain was* placed on the slide and fed with 
warmth and blood containing all fourteen elements required 
under the GREAT LAW OF LAWS. 

For a while it did nothing. It was supposed that it had got 
past the stage of building more of its own tissue. After wait¬ 
ing patiently, it showed signs of life. Soon it absorbed a very 
small part of the food offered it. It made cell after cell from 
this food, and it was found that the tissue thus built was. exactly 
like its own,—brain fibre. In the course of time it made what 
was a large part, as compared with the piece that was first at 
work; and the newly made part joined in the work of building 
brain tissue. 

Several pieces of brain had been put away in cold storage; 
all were in time used; some after many months of inactivity. 
Under the GREAT LAW OF LAWS, there are fourteen ele¬ 
ments required by the human body as food. In a number of 
tests, the following results were attained: 


44 


Complete Life Building 

When blood was used as food for the piece of brain, that 
had one element lacking, no matter what, the brain refused to 
build tissue. 

The increase of phosphorus in food combination seemed to 
paralyze the piece that was building brain tissue; the lack of 
it stopped the building. 

The presence of calcium-chloride gave the building process the 
greatest energy. The lack of it caused paralysis. 

The final conclusion reached was that the brain is built of all 
the fourteen elements; and this seems to be the only part of the 
body that requires all fourteen. Now arises- the question, if 
there are special elements needed to make skin, and others to 
make the nails and hair, and others to make the organs, why 
should all these elements be needed for the brain tissue? The 
answer seems to be this: The brain is the collective sum of all 
the body and all its parts; it is the great nerve center; it surely 
controls the distribution of the food elements throughout the 
whole body. We know that, without the brain, digestion and 
circulation are impossible; and we know that each food element, 
in order to do its part, must reach its zone of usefulness through 
the processes of digestion and circulation. 

Therefore there is but one perfect brain food: 

It is the complete food that is made up of the fourteen ele¬ 
ments required to build a perfect body under the GREAT LAW 
OF LAWS. 

It is now a proved fact that insanity may be caused by a lack 
of any one of these fourteen elements; and in some cases by 
using more than the fourteen in food selection. 

In concluding our discussion of this experiment, we will say 
that no evidence was obtained showing the process of thought 
in the smalL section used; but in previous years, many experi¬ 
ments had been made by opening the skull and watching the 
action of the brain during all forms of mental activity, and 
excitement. A gray fluid flows over the convolutions, and be¬ 
comes excessive when the thought is intense or over-active. Thus 
fluid is taken from the blood in its circulation. Persons who 
are mentally excited show a decided increase in the circulation 
and heart-beats. Dull minds have as a rule a very sluggish 
circulation. 

.The brain of man acts just like the brain of the animal. 




Nature’s Doctors 


45 


Except for the vast advance in development of this organ, 
which is shown by the deeper and more intricate convolutions, 
there is not the slightest difference between the brain of man 
and of the brute or beast. And the action of thought is the 
same in man and in the animal. 

In the brain of man there is not the least indication of the 
presence of the MIND. We must look elsewhere for this sub¬ 
lime gift,—the MIND. 

As far as man is concerned, his brain is merely a far ad¬ 
vanced and vastly improved organ of thought made and em¬ 
ployed exactly like the brain of the animal. 

SEVENTH EXPERIMENT. “Making the Heart Beat” 

If a man is shot through the brain, the injury to the nervous 
center will cause death; which fact shows that the brain and 
its various forms of life control the living organism called the 
human body. But any section of that brain, removed and fed 
with warmth and proper food, will start life anew. 

If a man drowns, nothing has been done to hurt any part of 
the body except to deprive the blood of the oxygen that is 
needed to purify it before it enters the heart for the purpose of 
being circulated, so that it may carry food to all parts of the 
body. The body is fully alive when a man is pronounced dead 
from drowning. Every organ is capable of performing its 
work; skin, stomach, liver, kidneys, heart, brain. Years ago we 
suggested that the failure to revive a person who was supposed 
to be dead from drowning was due to the fact that the body 
was not given the high degree of heat required to set it going 
again. 

In the various experiments already described, it was clearly 
stated that warmth of nearly one hundred degrees was needed 
to cause a piece of bone or skin, or organ, to begin a new life. 
Where this suggestion has been applied to persons drawn from 
the water, the work of resuscitation has been successful; and it 
is safe to say that several hundred persons are now living be¬ 
cause of this fact. 

Let us follow this simple law of creation: 

Fragments of heart were placed on slides and fed with blood; 
but not one of them started action. 


46 Complete Life Building 

Then one of these fragments was given the required degree 
of warmth, which is that of the active human body, or nearly 
one hundred degrees, and it began to build new cells just like 
the heart; while all the other pieces that were not given this 
warmth, remained apparently dead. But these, when made 
warm, all began to build new cells. Here we find why there 
are so many failures in the efforts to revive persons who are 
apparently dead: the one thing lacking is the warmth. 

In the experiment with the pieces of heart, when all had 
sufficient warmth, they not only began to build more heart tis¬ 
sue, but all began to contract and expand, just like whole hearts 
in living bodies. One fragment was' smaller than the others, 
and it beat and pulsated regularly, but with greater speed than 
the larger fragments; the former having 120 pulsations to the 
minute, while the others had 92 and one as low as 70 beats. 

Of course the warmth given the parts was only an incident; 
the really essential requirement being the right kind of food. 
This consisted of blood taken from one who had been fed for 
weeks on a perfect food composed only of the fourteen elements. 
When the tiniest bit of some non-food element was added, al¬ 
though in a perfect combination, it stopped the growth at once. 
Thus lard, or tomato, or pastry, or anything fried, or fresh 
bread, would prove injurious, showing that such foods are not 
intended for the human body. 

While the heart pieces were beating, the slightest breath of 
tobacco smoke on the part resulted in the instant stopping of 
the heart pulsation, and the cessation of the growth of new tissue. 

Cancer, which is now acknowledged to be erratic tissue growth 
due to interference with the oxygen in the blood by any air 
poison, was several times set up by the action of tobacco smoke 
on the pulsing pieces of heart tissue in these experiments. The 
fumes were so light as to be thinner than the thinnest vapor and 
were administered from the distance of four feet, and wholly 
free from exhalations from the lungs or other poisons; they 
were mixed with the purest air at full heat; yet the tissue 
curled up and began to be woven in erratic fibres such as are 
found in cancer. 

Recently the claim that tobacco juice and smoke are antiseptic 
has been fully exploded as false; these agencies injure the good 
tissue, and affect the insect life of visible size; but are wholly 


Nature’s Doctors 


47 


useless and powerless over bacteria of disease; yet are destruc¬ 
tive of life cells in healthy growth. In thousands of tests it 
has been shown that tobacco smoke and juice have no effect what¬ 
ever on germs of disease, but kill the healthy cells and tissue 
required to fight disease. This accounts for the common fact 
that smokers are more liable to sickness and epidemics than 
non-smokers; and tobacco chewers invariably have diseased 
livers and bad stomachs. 

The smoker’s throat cancer is a well-known malady; as is the 
tobacco heart. 

The heart is the toughest and most vital organ in the whole 
body. In nine cases out of every ten where examinations have 
been made soon after death, there is life in that organ, and it 
can be set to beating again in the manner stated in these experi¬ 
ments. 

One lesson of vital worth is here taught; the heart beats of 
its own power, independent of any aid from the general body, 
and its energy and vigor are so great that nothing short of 
monstrous abuse can stop it. No sensible person should have a 
weak heart; and only lack of knowledge or judgment can stand 
in the way of a complete cure of heart weakness. 

In the above experiment with the pieces of heart, the pulsa¬ 
tion continued for three days; then the tissue seemed to weary, 
and the smaller fragment dropped in its rate of action to ninety 
heart-beats a minute, while the larger fragment dropped to 
forty. Examination showed that, as the new tissue formed, 
some of the old died and gave out a poison known to doctors as 
toxin. This poison was removed by a special washing, and new 
blood was introduced for food, as the heart-material no doubt 
was about exhausted in the three days of feeding to the tissue- 
growth. Exactly the same conditions take place in the living 
body. Old cells break down and become a source of danger by 
their poison; and the same blood will not always serve as food. 

As soon as the fragments were washed and given new food, 
they again became vigorous; as the doctor in charge at the Insti¬ 
tute said, “they were pulsating at a furious rate.” While they 
were beating, they were rapidly growing in size, until the two 
fragments came together, whereupon they united and became a 
single organ. The two hearts that had been beating at different 
rates of speed now assumed a modified rate and pulsated as one 


48 


Complete Life Building 

heart. Another specimen of heart-fragment lived for 103 days, 
beating regularly all the time, and was accidentally destroyed. 

Deaths from heart failure, as in acute indigestion which stops 
the action of the heart, and from the poisons of the many non¬ 
foods eaten, should not be taken as final without an effort to set 
the heart going again; a result that has actually been attained 
in the light of new knowledge. The body should be put in a 
bath tub filled full of warm water of 100 degrees temperature, 
and artificial respiration resorted to. Do this before turning the 
body over to the embalmer; when of course it will be too late. 

SUMMARY OP THE EXPERIMENTS 

If a piece of any part of the human body that has been laid 
away in cold storage for months and then given warmth and per¬ 
fect food, will live again, as has been amply proved, then it is 
certain that the same part of the human body in that organism 
when alive and given perfect food will live on indefinitely. And 
what a part will do, the whole body will surely do. 

All that is required is perfect food. 

Therefore the person who knows what is perfect food, and 
who makes use of it in supplying the needs of the body, is to 
be regarded as the Representative of 

AN ULTIMATE CIVILIZATION. 

By this is meant that some day the average intelligence of 
the human race will be increased five thousand percent beyond 
what it is now, and it will be made as apparent as the sun in 
the sky that sickness and disease are the results of putting into 
the human body the things that cannot enter into the structure 
of the body; that gold cannot be made out of dirt, nor health out 
of poison; that germ maladies are nature’s efforts to drive out 
the unfit things that are being put into the body; and that pain, 
suffering, the torturing afflictions, and premature death are bar¬ 
barisms of the most barbaric character due to the lowest grade 
of civilization that could possibly exist under modern conditions. 



FOURTH SECTION 


THE GREAT LAW OF LAWS 
100 PERCENT RIGHT 


HE HUMAN BODY is built of material like any con¬ 
structed thing. There are about ninety well recog- 
I £> nized elements in the earth; some are good for mak- 
'Sgfiklr ing houses that are not good for making the human 
body. But what you intend to build should be made 
of the kind of material that is required to build it. If you wish 
to make a gold ring, you select gold. If it is to be a platinum 
ornament, you select platinum. If you give an order to a con¬ 
tractor to erect for you a house of brick, you would expect him 
to use brick. 

Long before man ever knew there were elements in nature, the 
human body was built by the Creator of the following natural 
materials: 


1. Oxygen. 

2. Hydrogen. 

3. Nitrogen. 

4. Carbon. 

5. Calcium. 

6. Phosphorus. 

7. Sulphur. 

8. Sodium. 

9. Chlorine. 

10. Fluorine. 

11. Iron. 

12. Potassium. 

13. Magnesium. 

14. Silicon. 


49 



























50 


Complete Life Building 

The Creator knew what was wanted better than man. Any 
attempt to add to these elements, or to take from them is a 
challenge at the Maker and is followed by severe penalties 
known as sickness. If man had never changed the plan of mak¬ 
ing his own body he would never have been sick, and disease 
would have been unknown. Every infringement on the wise 
plan of creation is penalized. Ill health, therefore, is the pun¬ 
ishment inflicted on man for challenging the plan and purpose 
of the Creator in making the human body. We stand ready to 
prove that as soon as man comes back to the plan and purpose of 
the Creator in the construction of his body, he will reach perfect 
health, and in that respect he will attain one hundred percent 
of civilization. 

But man was not made of the fourteen RAW elements. They 
were woven into combinations suited for the purposes of food. 
To show how close w r e are to the fatal poisons that surround us, 
let us examine into these elements and their combinations: 

OXYGEN.—This most essential product of the earth is a 
.deadly poison and therefore could not be taken as food in its 
raw state; so it is combined in many forms in order to rid itself 
of its dangers. In air it is mixed with nitrogen principally. In 
water it has hydrogen as its assistant. And it is mixed with 
many of the foods and drinks that enter the body. Nitrogen 
alone is not only a fatal poison, but holds in its power some of 
the most violent and dangerous forces; yet it weaves the tissue 
of the human form. Hydrogen likewise has its many kinds of 
danger when used alone. 

CARBON.—This is the fuel of the body, as nitrogen is the 
material from which tissue and flesh are woven; yet carbon by 
itself is a fatal poison. When utilized in the making of proper 
food it breaks down and becomes a most violent and dangerous 
gas, seeking always other affiliations. But if you put these four 
elements together in their composite form you get the basis and 
beginning of all kinds of life in both the animal and vegetable 
kingdoms; albumen and protoplasm. This basis is the one ulti¬ 
mate object of digestion of food, and the beginning of the mak¬ 
ing of pure blood, requiring very little of other elements to com¬ 
plete the work. Spent carbon and oxygen in the exhalations of 
the human body, or in the exhausts of an engine, or used-up gas, 
or other form, are deadly enemies of life. 


Nature’s Doctors 


51 


IRON.—Because the blood needs this element, many doctors 
have ordered its use as a medicine, forgetting that when taken 
as a mineral it is dangerous. To make the value seem more 
real, tests following, the use of iron have shown an increase of the 
red coloring matter in the blood; but science now knows that 
this coloring is a stain and is not a part of the blood structure, 
just as the glow of health on the cheeks, of the girls who walk 
back and forth on Chestnut Street, in Philadelphia, is the prod¬ 
uct of the drug store and not of nature. Iron in order to be safe 
must be grown in some plant, and exist in cell-formation in 
vegetation, fruit, cereal, or flesh of beef which is composed 
always of vegetable-cells. Iron as a mineral is a destroyer of 
lung tissue; and its use has brought on many thousands of cases 
of tuberculosis. To secure it in its cell-form, the most direct 
way is in the use of underdone beef, retaining the red color; or 
in the flesh of a sound potato, eating only the skin and the part 
close to the skin; or in raw milk whole, eaten but not drank; 
or buttermilk; or raw eggs whipped up in raw milk eaten but 
not drank; or the royal juice of red or blue grapes, which is the 
juice pressed from the skin and that part that lies between the 
pulp and the skin ; or the royal flesh of red apples, being that 
part that is closest to the skin of the apple; or in whole wheat, 
oat meal, com meal, red salmon, and some other foods in less 
quantities. 

CALCIUM.—This element is perhaps the most needed food 
of the body, as the heart action, and brain action, as well as the 
flow of nerve force all depend on calcium. It is found in very 
small quantities in all the foods that contain iron noted above. 
It combines with chlorine, another absolutely necessary element, 
in the form known as calcium chloride, and in this combination 
it is one of the only four foods that can be taken without vege¬ 
table cell growth: Bicarbonate of Soda, Acid Phosphate, Sodium 
Chloride and Calcium Chloride being the four combinations re¬ 
ferred to as foods that need not always appear in cell growth in 
order to be useful. 

COMMON SALT.—This is known above as Sodium Chloride, 
and contains the much needed chlorine, which is difficult to 
secure in any other form. Common salt stands out as the one 
greatest food that need not be grown into vegetable cells in order 
to be safe to eat. Sodium however is one of the most violent of 


52 


Complete Life Building 

poisons; and chlorine is so dangerous as an element that it has 
to be handled with the greatest care: yet it is known as a set¬ 
tled fact that if common salt is not eaten, and none of the other 
salts are taken in its place, death would follow in four or five 
weeks. Fortunately there are many other salts that are found 
in vegetables and especially in beef that take the place of the 
common kind. Certain tribes live wholly without common salt, 
but are hunters and eat flesh and fish, as well as roots and cereals 
rich in other salts. So important is this study that we have de¬ 
voted another part of the book to its consideration. 

BAKING POWDER.—Following the recent statements con¬ 
cerning foods that can be eaten when not in the form of cell 
growth, we find that baking powder is necessarily composed of 
such foods when it is safe to take at all. But most baking pow¬ 
ders now on the market are real poisons. They eat the lining 
from the stomach, or damage it until congestion and inflamma¬ 
tion follow. More than one hundred million pounds of baking 
powders are used in the United States every year; and of this 
vast tonnage less than one million pounds can be said to be free 
from dangerous poisons. The severest of these powders are 
those that contain aluminium, which is the disguised name for 
alum; and those that contain ammonium, another disguise for 
ammonia. Appendicitis can be traced to these poisons. 

The safe formula is given here: For making 100 pounds of 
baking powder, use 56 pounds of granular phosphate, 25% 
pounds of granular bicarbonate of soda, and 18% pounds of 
super-dried starch. Calcium is a part of the phosphate, which 
is also known as acid phosphate. For one pound, or two, or 
five, or ten, your druggist will make the exact proportions based 
on the above formula. In addition to the calcium thus obtained, 
the careful and cautious use of common salt will give the body 
the much-needed chlorine. Health requires living vitality; and 
this living vitality is based on both calcium and chlorine, which 
furnish the spark of life. 

THE RIGHT FOODS are those that are required by the body 
as absolutely necessary to its construction; in a pure state; and 
properly prepared or cooked. 

The absence of any one needed element in the food will surely 
cause disease, often fatal, and always serious and alarming. 

The presence of any element in addition to those needed will 


Nature’s Doctors 53 

In some rray injure the body; hence we have two minor laws as 
follows: 

1. The LAW of OVER-BALANCE. 

2. The LAW of UNDER-BALANCE. 

There is an over-balance when there are more than fourteen 
elements. 

There is an under-balance where there are less than fourteen 
elements. 

We have seen that either condition will produce disease. 

But an over-balance may occur when there are all fourteen 
elements and no more, but when one element is far in excess of 
the proportion required by the body. 

And an under-balance may occur when one needed element 
is seriously lacking in its proportionate amount, although 
present. 

In this section of our work we cannot take up the many cases 
that afford illustrations of the wonders of this law and of the 
wise provisions of the Creator in the growth of food with which 
to sustain life. One example will serve as well as a hundred. 
We take RICE as the subject of this example because it is used 
more than any other one article of food throughout the world. 
First we will refer to the widely prevalent malady known as 

BERIBERI.—This has slain many millions because its origin 
and nature have been persistently misunderstood. It is gen¬ 
erally fatal unless checked in the early stages. The blood dries 
up; the feet become paralyzed; and the whole body is stricken. 
It has never been known except among rice-eating nations. 

RICE.—This valuable food is in its natural state surrounded 
by a skin called the pericarp, which may be white, yellow, red, 
or very dark. Or the skin may be of two or more of these colors. 
This skin clings closely to the rice grain and is a part of it. On 
the outside of this skin is the husk. Rice is said to be “cured ’ 1 
when the husk is removed; and to be * ‘polished’ ’ when both the 
husk and the skin are removed. 

The two most common facts in certain phases of Oriental life 
were for many years: first, the almost universal use of rice as 
food; second, the epidemic disease of beriberi, regarded then as 
incurable. For many years experts who studied the disease of¬ 
fered theory after theory, and all were wrong. An accident in 
1897 brought to light both the cause and the remedy. In the 


54 


Complete Life Building 

great island of Java the beriberi epidemic raged unchecked 
from 1882 to 1897, fifteen years. The famous Dutch physician, 
Eijkman, who was stationed at Java, had his attention called to 
the sickness and deaths among poultry from a malady that had 
the same symptoms as beriberi. Upon asking for information 
among the domestics attached to the hospital he learned that 
some days before the outbreak, the poultry had been fed some 
“polished” rice that had been left over in the kitchen. The 
physician, thinking he saw the solution of the question, obtained 
from other rice, the husks and skin surfaces, and fed them at 
once to such of the poultry as survived, although they were 
badly stricken. To his surprise and satisfaction, they all got 
well very quickly. 

Polished rice given to birds will cause neuritis, in a form 
known as polyneuritis. But if the outer coating of rice be given 
them, immediate relief follows. The next step was to prove that 
whole rice will cure this disease, which polished rice will cause. 
The outer coating of rice must contain something intended by 
nature for the benefit of life; and the practice of polishing it 
must be a crime against the health of man. Yet in America 
there is hardly any rice sold except the polished kind. To add 
to its danger, it is covered with parafine to produce a higher 
polish. It then sells for eighty percent more than the less at¬ 
tractive kind, and is wholly an unfit food. 

By this example we have shown that one of the most impor¬ 
tant and valuable articles of food, rice, may by being under¬ 
balanced cause disease; and that the very disease so caused may 
be cured by feeding the discarded husk of the rice. 

In the Malay peninsular in 1910, Doctors Fraser and Stanton 
found the natives suffering from an epidemic of beriberi due to 
having been fed polished rice. The only medicine given them 
was natural rice, with the skin on, and this medicine brought 
about a cure in every instance where it was given before death 
had claimed its victims. Surely this is a better medicine than 
drugs. 

In the Philippines in 1910, Major Chamberlain of the U. S. 
Army Medical Corps had among the native Scouts about 600 
cases of beriberi caused by eating American prepared polished 
rice. The diet included among other things twenty ounces daily 
of polished rice. For this he substituted sixteen ounces of un- 


Nature’s Doctors 


55 


polished rice. No medicine was required. At the end of the 
year 1910, the cases of beriberi were reduced to 50; in 1911, there 
were only three; in 1912, there were but two; and in 1913, not 
one. A few years later polished rice was used for food by some 
families, who became victims of the disease; several losing their 
lives before the remedy was applied. 

Polished rice is a wholly unbalanced food, containing almost 
nothing beyond one element, and this is supposed to hold a poi¬ 
son, for which nature provided an antidote in the contents of 
the skin on the rice. This fact does not warrant people in re¬ 
fusing to eat rice if they can get it in the form nearer to nature ; 
while, to be sure, the white portion is a poison, the whole rice in 
its combination consists of all the elements needed by the human 
body, to which is added an antidote for the poisonous interior of 
the grain. 

It is all wonderful. 

What is true of rice is true in part if not in whole of many 
other kinds of food. We made the assertion that under-balanced 
food will cause disease. We have made good this claim in this 
instance; and more than that we have shown that an under- 
balanced food has destroyed the lives of millions of human be¬ 
ings in the past. Our position is this: 

THE GREAT LAW OF LAWS is the supreme law of life, 
and must be obeyed. 

Withdraw one of the fourteen elements of food, and you may 
slay millions. Restore the lost element, and you have the per¬ 
fect medicine by which this dread and awful malady may be 
cured. Since writing this bit of history, our attention has been 
called to official reports to the effect that beriberi has recently 
been fully cured by nothing more than the rejected husks of 
rice; while the most highly endorsed medicines in the form of 
drugs have all proved useless. 

Let us go along further. 

Pellagra .—This disease prevails in the South, especially in re¬ 
gions where a full variety of food cannot be obtained. A work 
published by Dr. Goldberger, of the U. S. Public Health Service, 
has proved with certainty that this very troublesome malady is 
due to lack of all the needed elements in the food. He calls it a 
deficiency disease, which means the same thing. 

Rickets .—This trouble comes to many children; it is a soften- 


56 


Complete Life Building 

ing or underdevelopment of the bones. For generations the 
remedy was sought in medicines, but without success. It is now 
known to be due to lack of some of the fourteen elements: when 
these are all present in the food, the cure is assured. This fact 
is not by any means a new one; it was established long ago, and 
is now understood by all doctors. What concerns us is the proof 
that a complete food selection will cure disease. 

Loss of Hair .—But here we have a new remedy for a very old 
trouble. Millions of people are bald-headed; and other millions 
are suffering the humiliation of losing their hair in part. About 
forty years ago the Ralston Health Club began to suspect that 
the loss of hair was due to the lack of all the body elements in 
the food; but not until the past five years have we given the 
matter a full test. We are now able to assert that loss of hair 
may be prevented by including in the diet the elements that build 
hair. When we come to think of it, the truth is so clearly ap¬ 
parent that the wonder is it was not discovered two thousand 
years ago. The logic is simple: Hair requires certain material 
which must be in the blood, and which the blood must deposit in 
the scalp as it circulates in that part of the body. As the blood 
derives its material from the food eaten, this element must be 
eaten if nutrition for the hair is sought. It is a matter of fact 
that nearly all the food of modern times is lacking in this mate¬ 
rial ; hence the loss of hair in some cases, and total baldness in 
others. 

People who have carefully selected foods containing all the 
fourteen elements have found a steady improvement in the 
growth and vitality of the hair. 

Wrinkled Skin .—There are mechanical causes for deep wrin¬ 
kles on the face; and there is also a food deficiency cause in 
many cases. The skin is made from certain elements; if they 
are lacking in the food, the skin is bound to show depressions 
or valleys. Proof of this fact is sustained by experiments going 
on for many years in which certain persons have never failed 
to include all food elements in their diet, and, although very 
old, they show no wrinkles on their faces. A fact of this kind 
means something; it cannot be argued out of existence. 

Calcium .—The real life of the body, and of its brain and its 
nervous system depend on calcium. A great physician who was 
also a great chemist, was once asked what in his opinion stood 


Nature’s Doctors 


57 


nearest the life of the body; and his reply was Calcium. It is 
the cause of the heart-beat; when it is not present in proper pro¬ 
portion in the daily food, the heart is weak. It also enables cuts 
and wounds to heal; where there is lack of calcium, the cut will 
never heal. Nose bleed is often due to lack of this element. All 
blood losses are assisted in efforts to stop them by this element; 
and in tuberculosis it is useful especially where there are hemor¬ 
rhages. When the nerves, the brain, and the vitality are de¬ 
pressed, the use of calcium foods will cause an immediate revival. 

Hay Fever .—The Ralston Health Club has discovered that 
victims of hay fever, rose cold and similar maladies, lack cal¬ 
cium chloride; or the combination of calcium and chlorine in 
their food. As a result many cures of this disease have been 
taking place in the last year, although it has long been regarded 
as incurable. But the cures are facts. How to get calcium in 
the body is the question. It is not easily introduced in the food ; 
but there are foods that contain calcium fluorine; and there is 
common salt that contains chlorine; from these two it is possible 
to build the needed calcium chloride that is the cure for hay 
fever. More will be said about this in a later page. 

Salt .—Some persons claim that they do not need salt. This 
food consists of sodium and chlorine, and is known to the chem¬ 
ist as sodium chloride. Digestion is impossible without hydro¬ 
chloric acid; which is made of hydrogen, the water element, and 
of chlorine; these constitute what is known as the gastric juice, 
which carries on the work of digestion. As salt is the only food 
that contains chlorine, it follows that if you do not eat salt, you 
cannot digest your food; and this is the fact. Salt, therefore, 
furnishes more than one value to life; it gives us the gastric 
juice; it brings chlorine into the blood; and it enables the cal¬ 
cium there to combine and produce calcium chloride, the cure 
for hay fever. So impressive has become the importance of cal¬ 
cium chloride as the cure for hay fever, that one of the most 
reliable chemical laboratories in America has begun to make it 
and place it on sale. But the better way is to secure it in food 
selection. The best single food for this purpose is found in baked 
potatoes, well salted to meet the taste, and covered with heavy 
cream from raw milk, eating the skins of the potatoes: for the 
full food value is found in the skins and in the potato within a 
half inch of the skin. This means that the thickness of the half 


58 


Complete Life Building 

inch next to the skin, with the latter, contain the full food value 
of the potato. It is not wise to over-salt the food in order to get 
the required amount of salt; the better plan is to eat as many 
potatoes as you can at one meal and salt them to taste. In the 
skins of the potatoes and in the cream, you will secure an abun¬ 
dance of calcium; while you will find the needed chlorine in the 
salt. Nature will do the rest when they enter the stomach. To 
quote the words of a well-known scientific writer: “These ele¬ 
ments separate and make new formations; from the material 
they furnish the finished product; but how we do not know.” 

If we attempt to use the foods of nature contrary to her plan, 
she offers us deadly poisons. One illustration of this fact is 
seen in the use of rice. 

Salt is made of sodium, a very violent poison; and of the still 
more poisonous gas, chlorine; yet in combination it is not only 
harmless when taken only as the taste demands, but is necessary. 

Potatoes .—Here is another food that stands at the head of 
body-building material, yet when wrongly used is a poison. 'We 
have seen that rice when stripped of its skin is the cause of one 
of the most fearful diseases known; yet that the skin is a cure 
of that very malady. 

The only food value in a potato is the skin itself, and the part 
of potato that lies under the skin for about a half inch to an 
inch, depending on the size of the tuber. Yet during-the great 
war when food was scarce and the government was urging peo¬ 
ple to plant potatoes even in their flower gardens, cooks were 
peeling and throwing away the only parts that had any value, 
and were retaining and cooking the part that was a direct poi¬ 
son. In consequence of the unusually large use of this kind of 
food, humanity suffered from an epidemic that had been hitherto 
unknown: the “flu” or new form of influenza, which left in its 
wake many millions of victims that have not yet recovered their 
full health, and most of whom never will. 

Potatoes fried or boiled, eaten in the quantity that prevailed 
during the war, will again cause the “flu” and will also be re¬ 
sponsible for the grippe and other deficiency maladies. 

Rice eaten without the skin is without the slightest doubt the 
slayer of millions; but eaten with the skin it is an ideal food 
when taken with salt and light cream from raw milk. There is 
no better food. 


Nature’s Doctors 


59 


A half truth is dangerous and often fatal to life. The gov¬ 
ernment during the war when food was scarce cited the case of 
persons who had lived on nothing but potatoes all their lives, 
and of one well authenticated case of a woman who lived for 
more than one hundred years and had never eaten any other 
food but potatoes. It so happened that investigation was possi¬ 
ble in her case. She lived all the time in the country where she 
had clean raw milk: at least raw milk whether it was clean or 
not; of the cleanliness we cannot vouch except by inference. 
But her potato diet of three meals a day consisted of the whole 
potato, and they were in the latter years of her life, the best of 
all varieties, Irish Cobblers. But she ate SKINS and all! She 
never fried or boiled them: always baked them. And she ate 
them salted, and with plenty of cream from raw milk, for she 
knew nothing of the deadening of milk by sterilizing. 

Here is a food that contains all the fourteen elements required 
to build life; and in the exact proportion: Potatoes with the 
skins on, and never in any form except baked, salted to taste; 
and with plenty of cream from raw milk. Such a diet will pro¬ 
long life indefinitely, will drive out disease, and will increase the 
vitality of the whole system. It is a complete food in every 
respect. Nor is it tiresome. No fully balanced food is ever 
tiresome. 

This diet is the first and safest change in the life of the infant 
that is being weaned; with the exception that for one year the 
outer film should be scraped off; but this does not diminish the 
food value of the baked potato. The cream also should be quite 
thin, but as fresh as possible. It is the one dependable article 
of food for this purpose. 

Oat Meal .—This cereal is the best of all foods in the cereal 
class for the human body. But like rice it must be understood 
and used carefully. When cooked less than three hours, oat 
meal is a direct poison, especially for the liver. It does not 
change its character unless it has three hours of disintegration 
by being cooked; then it is an entirely different thing. The best 
of all ways to cook it is in the fireless cooker; start it on the 
regular stove, transfer it to the fireless, and cook it all night. 
In the morning toast it for a few minutes on the regular stove. 
Eat it with salt and cream; or with sugar and cream. We 
know of men of the greatest virility both of brain and body who 


60 


Complete Life Building 


have had nothing else for their breakfasts for forty years. With 
the cream it contains all fourteen elements in perfect combina¬ 
tion and will prolong life indefinitely. 

If a person were in ill health, and wished to diet on the one- 
food plan which means only one kind of food at each meal, here 
are both breakfast and supper: the former of oat meal and 
cream; the latter of the baked potatoes and cream. Two meals 
are thus provided; and at one-tenth the cost of the worthless 
kinds now served. More than that you will get to like them. 

We are not asking you to adopt these ideas; our only purpose 
now is to show you what is meant by 100 Percent Right in Food 
Selection. 

The Creator has made the human body in His own way, and 
Nature proves that when man undertakes to alter the plan that 
has been established there is an endless array of penalties; as 
may be seen from the vast libraries of books on diseases, the 
ever increasing hordes of doctors, the setting up of drug stores 
on every corner, the growing demand for hospitals, the train 
loads of medicines that daily sweep through the land, and the 
accumulation of surgical instruments which now are so numerous 
that if piled up in one place they would make a mountain from 
which you could behold more than four hundred square miles 
of land. 

If the food that is daily fed to the human body were to con¬ 
tain all the fourteen elements in their proper combinations, and 
no other elements, the following results would be attained : 

1. You could not make the body sick by any means you could 
devise. 

2. A body that is built of these fourteen elements is perfectly 
immune against all disease, no matter how virulent, and no mat¬ 
ter what the exposure. It is simply impossible for disease to 
secure a foothold for there is no soil in which its germs can take 
growth. In all germ maladies two things are required: germs 
and soil. No germs can grow without the soil; and there is no 
germ soil in any of the fourteen elements. 

We live in an age in which the BRAIN controls humanity, 
and furnishes all the errors from which come sickness and every 
form of misfortune. 

We are now on the threshold of a new age in which the MIND 
is to control; and that will bring the 100 Percent of Civilization 


Nature’s Doctors 


61 


towards which all life tends, or else living is in vain. The mind 
does the right thing always; the brain never does. As proof of 
this fact let ns see if you can grasp this proposition: Furnishing 
the body with the exact food material which it requires, is the 
right thing: furnishing it with something else is the wrong 
thing. 

Can you grasp it? 

HUMANITY IS JUST WAKING UP 

Nature did the best she could, and mankind has been trying 
to find out what nature intended as food. If man lived on the 
earth a hundred thousand years ago, and it is claimed that he 
was here long before that time, he had many a stomach ache in 
his experiments with eatables. The first generation had no one 
to tell them the difference between toadstools and mushrooms, 
and similar differences in other lines of things; so they were 
compelled to test them for themselves. 

But even at this time the procession of tests has not reached 
a final distinction between toadstools and mushrooms; for one of 
the greatest living authorities on mushrooms recently died from 
eating toadstools. 

The same kind of experimenting has been going on for more 
than one hundred thousand years; and millions of people have 
laid down their lives in the effort to ascertain the difference 
between what can be safely eaten and what is dangerous. They 
to-day have got as far as tomatoes; a so-called food that contains 
no food elements, but that is good for the scurvy, although there 
are many of the true foods that are better for that blood dis¬ 
order. Oxalic acid in water is also good for the scurvy, but it 
kills the rest of the body. Tomatoes contain oxalic acid. 

Perfect health has never been found in any foreign nation; 
and some part of the reason may be learned from the following 
things they devour with delight: 

1. Seaweed is eaten in Japan. 

2. Candied grasshoppers are eaten in Japan. 

3. Powdered deer horns are eaten in China. 

4. Rats and mice are eaten in China. 

5. Dogs and cats are eaten in China, and of late years in many 
other countries, and in our own land in sausage meat. 


62 Complete Life Building 

6. Horse flesh is eaten in France and other European coun¬ 
tries. 

7. Fried rhinoceros hide is eaten in Africa. 

8. Pickled pigs feet are eaten in many countries. 

9. Moldy cheese ready for the moving picture camera, is eaten 
in England. 

10. Snails and frogs’ legs are eaten in France, and elsewhere. 

11. Grasshoppers, fried and made into meal, furnish the staple 
food of its class in Arabia. 

12. Snakes and lizards are eaten by the North American 
Indians. 

13. Octopus is eaten by the people of Naples. 

14. Wood grubs are eaten by the Maoris of New Zealand. 

15. The eggs of the Volga sturgeon are eaten as caviar by the 
Russians. 

16. Human flesh was eaten by the Fiji Islanders. 

17. Sweetbreads, roes, brains and kidneys are generally eaten 
to-day. 

18. Oysters, clams, lobsters, crabs, terrapin, mussels and 
shrimps are all scavengers of the sea, and contain poisons that 
have caused more deaths than any other line of foods. 

Oysters consist of two parts, the soft and the hard; the former 
is liver and the latter muscle fibre. The liver contains glycogen, 
and the fibrous part has no food value. They are not a true 
food. 

Clams are like oysters in their composition, but harder to 
digest. 

Lobsters, no matter how fresh, poison some persons, and in 
many other instances they set up a skin irruption. 

Crabs and terrapin are bedded in filth and putrid matter on 
which they feed. 

Mussels are poisonous and have caused many deaths. Shrimps 
are of the same class but milder in character. 

Intelligence is the fruit of the brain; and may be wrong and 
yet intelligent. The dog and horse are intelligent. They have 
no guiding rule to tell them when they are right or wrong. 

The banker and broker may be highly intelligent; yet may be 
wrong when they devote themselves so severely to finance that 
they fall dead in their chairs from heart disease, as thousands 


Nature’s Doctors 


63 


of them do. Doctors say tnere are countless cases of ruined 
heart action, following the awful strain of the struggle for 
wealth. Such a manner of living is not right. 

People who dwell in cities are certainly intelligent; yet they 
are wrong when they select as a place of abode a crowded local¬ 
ity where the dust of the streets, laden with the pulverized filth 
of animal excretions, floats in at the windows and falls on tables, 
dishes, foods, clothing, beds and carpets, only to be inhaled and 
re-inhaled into the lungs; where pure air is never possible; and 
where the distracting noises of the night permit only a semi¬ 
sleep that invites nervous breakdown. Such a manner of living 
is not right; but it is highly intelligent. 

The people who eat those things that are not suited to the body 
are intelligent; but they are wrong. They cannot see that the 
body requires for its building and repair the same food ele¬ 
ments that make the body; not the things that cannot enter into 
any part of its life. Intelligence may begin with the lowest 
form of animal existence and climb to the dizzy heights of 
human genius; but at its best, in its noblest grandeur, it is far 
below that divine quality, the MIND. At the risk of tiring you, 
let us say that the test is this: 

Whatever is absolutely RIGHT is the work and gift of the 
mind. 

All else is the work of the intelligence, ranging from the 
worm in the mud, or the cave man gnawing a bone, up to the 
broker who gasps for his breath as his heart breaks down, or 
the doctor who builds up his practice by telling his patients to 
eat what they like. 

INSTINCT WAS ONCE ACTIVE TO AID HUMANITY 

It has been claimed that only the animal kingdom receives 
help from Nature through instinct. But we see in a number of 
ways the assistance of this power in human life. 

BLEEDING. 

PHYSICKING. 

FASTING. 

Doctors were once called leeches. A leech was employed to 
suck the blood from a sick person. It is an aquatic worm, known 
as a blood-sucker. Any dictionary to-day gives as one of the 


64 


Complete Life Building 

definitions of leech, a doctor, as well as a blood-sucker. What 
taught people to draw blood in order to relieve sickness? In¬ 
stinct. The theory was that sickness came from the presence of 
poisons in the system; and this theory proved correct; but in 
taking bad blood, good blood was drawn also, and this left the 
patient weak, and tended to bring on death by lowering the 
power of resistance. 

But it showed the purpose to rid the body of its poisons. 

Doctors were once called lances. A lancet was a steel instru¬ 
ment made to take the place of the leech; and instinct impelled 
its use for the same reason. 

To-day doctors are called physicians. A physician is one who 
physics. Instinct taught the race that the poisons were in the 
blood and also in the intestinal canal; so the effort has been made 
of late years to drive them out by laxatives and purges. It is 
all the same battle against the presence of poisons in the body. 

A leech was a poison remover. 

A lance was a poison remover. 

A physician was a poison remover. 

A faster was a poison remover. 

Fasting is older in practice than leeching, lancing or physick¬ 
ing; and was taught in all religions from the beginning. It is a 
slow way of getting rid of the locked-up poisons of the body. 

It will thus be seen that the great curative methods of the 
world for thousands of years have been directed against the poi¬ 
sons that have been brought into the body by what enters the 
mouth; foods and other things being guilty of producing the 
cause of sickness and the support of doctors. This being the case 
it would seem to be the part of wisdom to lessen the kinds of 
food that are most to blame. 

It all comes down to the law of right; of being one hundred 
percent right; which means taking into the body as food only 
the things that contain the needed elements; the FOURTEEN 
ELEMENTS; and to use them in balanced form. This is possi¬ 
ble at all times; and it is to teach these truths that the Ralston 
Health Club comes into your life at this time. 

DO YOU KNOW that if you eat only the fourteen elements 
in balanced form, you will never have to drive poisons from the 
body; and the absence of poisons will keep out the soil in which 
the germs of disease find harbor and on which they thrive? 


FIFTH SECTION 


BUILDING THE BODY 

*j^fe^|feHREE THINGS are sought by the Ralston Health 
f m| Club in its efforts to make surgery unnecessary. In 
<3 I 6> the first place, there must be a method whereby the 
poisons in the body may be drawn off before they set 
up weakness or disease. In the second place, there 
must be found the exact foods that are required to sustain per¬ 
fect life in all the various parts of the system. In the third 
place, the means of repairing injury already done must be found 
and applied. 

Where damage has already been done to any organ, that organ 
now is weak, and some form of disease has begun to enter it. 
The steps that a malady take are often sheathed and hidden un¬ 
til the disease is beyond repair. This is seen in Bright’s disease, 
also in consumption, and often in strain on the arteries of the 
heart, and sometimes in diabetes; and yet, in the early stages of 
all these maladies, there is abundant hope of cure. Consumption 
and diabetes can be overcome in nine cases out of every ten, if 
the methods of this book are adopted. 

There are two kinds of life in the body: 

1. The general life of the whole body. 

2. The separate lives of the parts within that make up the 
whole body. 

The stopping of one of these parts will bring death to the 
whole body while, in fact, it should not be regarded as dead, for 
only one part has stopped its work, and that part should be 
made to renew it again. 


65 



















66 


Complete Life Building 

Life renewal begins with mouth digestion. 

Out of more than one hundred thousand experiments made 
under all conditions, it has been found sufficient to merely chew 
the food enough to thoroughly mix it with the saliva. If this 
mixing can be done in a second of time, so that every particle 
of the food is touched by the saliva, that is long enough. Some 
persons are able to give the food one turn in the mouth and 
thereby bring it into contact with the saliva, and so eat rapidly; 
but it is never wise to swallow any food without first allowing 
the saliva to touch it. The following rules will help understand 
this law: 

Rule 1 .—It is not necessary to chew food very long, if it is 
chewed thoroughly. 

Rule 2 .—All solid food should be taken into the mouth in very 
small lots. 

Rule 3 .—All solid food should either be chewed or turned 
over in the mouth until every part of it has been brought into 
contact with saliva. It is then ready to be swallowed. 

Rule 4 .—All liquid food should also be turned over in the 
mouth for the purpose of mixing with the saliva. 

Rule 5 .—Liquids that are not food drive the saliva back 
through the glands and prevent its mingling with food in the 
mouth; therefore no food should be washed down into the stom¬ 
ach by water, tea, coffee, beer, liquor, wine or other non-food 
liquid, as none of these are foods. 

Rule 6. —Milk, cream, soups, broths, simple gravies, and the 
like, are foods, and may be eaten with solids provided they are 
kept in the mouth long enough to enable the saliva to mix all 
through them. 

Rule 7.—Food, whether solid or liquid, that is swallowed into 
the stomach without mixing with the saliva of the mouth, lacks 
the first essential of digestion, which is freedom from fermenta¬ 
tion. 

Rule 8 .—The powerful antiseptic value of saliva destroys all 
germs in bad food, and all poisons that arise from ferment. As 
proof of this law, persons seated at the same table with those 
who are killed by ptomain poison from partly spoiled fish or 
meats, are saved from death by reason of the fact that they sali¬ 
vate their food thoroughly, while the victims are of the class 
known as “bolters of food,” or those who swallow without chew- 


Nature’s Doctors 


67 

ing, or who wash their food down with water, tea, coffee, beer, 
wine or liquor. 

Thousands die every year from ptomain poisoning; and other 
thousands who eat the same kind of food, but salivate it, are 
not even made sick. 

Rule 9 .—The purest food will ferment in the stomach if not 
first salivated at the mouth. 

Rule 10 .—Gas in the stomach of grown persons, eructations, 
ferment of food all through the tract, flatulence, “rolling” of 
the bowels, and similar disturbances are due to the decay of the 
food after it has been swallowed; and the best food will so decay 
instead of digesting if it is not salivated; while, on the other 
hand, salivation at the mouth will make such troubles impossible. 

Rule 11 .—The drinking of water during meals is a help to 
digestion if the water is taken in small quantities, and is not 
mixed with food in the mouth. Mixing with food in the stomach 
during and after a meal is helpful. Cold water should be taken 
slowly and sparingly, but as often as desired. 

All babies and young children should be given cold water, 
even ice water if relished, but in sips. It has been proved that 
small quantities of cold water given to very young babies, if 
given on the end of a spoon, will relieve them and assist in in¬ 
ducing sleep. This practice has been of the greatest help to 
tired mothers who formerly were compelled to stay awake nights 
to comfort crying children. Most babies cry because of thirst. 

Rule 12 .—Hasty swallowing of good food brings on ferment 
in the stomach; and hasty swallowing of bad food increases the 
danger of immediate distress and sickness, sometimes quickly 
bringing on acute indigestion and death. 

Rule 13 .—The saliva of the mouth furnishes the first cells of 
life-builders; and the gastric juice of the stomach furnishes the 
second set of life-building cells. 

Rule 14 .—The gastric juice will not flow in abundance to the 
stomach unless the palate stimulates such action. 

There is always some slight flow of gastric juice, but not a nor¬ 
mal or healthy flow, unless the palate originates it. The question 
may be asked, how can the palate which is at the mouth affect 
the stomach juices? The answer is plain. The digestive tract 
acts as a whole. There have been many proofs of the fact that 
the palate really controls the stomach. One of the old theories 


68 


Complete Life Building 

that was believed by every physician for generations has re¬ 
cently been exploded. It was always supposed that the presence 
of food in the. stomach excited the flow of gastric juice; but this 
is now known not to be true. 

Rule 15. —The contents of the stomach have nothing to do 
with the flow of gastric juice into that organ. 

Food in the stomach will not invite the digestive fluids. Ex¬ 
periments by the thousands have been made to prove this fact, 
some by direct observation during operations when the interior 
action of the stomach was seen, and others by indirect but 
equally effective means. It was formerly believed that the pres¬ 
ence of food in the stomach, by touching its walls, would set up 
the same kind of excitement that food in the mouth does, and 
would therefore draw forth the juices. But the reverse is true. 

Rule 16. —That which pleases or displeases the palate of the 
mouth will aid or hinder digestion at the stomach. 

Some great experiments have been made to- prove this rule. 
The number of stomachs that have been operated upon are in the 
thousands. The operation seems to be safe- at all times, as we 
have never heard of any result that was not satisfactory, and 
lives have been saved in this way when there was no other source 
of help. The- Pawlow experiments are briefly stated as follows, 
although they are now known to all the world: 

1. Every effort was made to cause gastric juice to flow into 
stomachs that had been cut open and exposed to view; the in¬ 
terior walls were, scraped, then they were excited by the action 
of a feather, then by the introduction of rough sand and finally 
by putting tempting food within. In every instance the stomach 
remained dry. 

2. Bread placed in the stomach remained for hours unacted 
upon. The coagulated whites of eggs were undigested. The un¬ 
cooked white of eggs passed through the porous walls of the 
stomach, but this was done by absorption, as no gastric juices 
appeared. Raw meat, after a long period, started a very slight 
flow, but not enough to act upon the meat. 

3. In order to test the law of digestion, all these foods were 
left in the stomach, and then an opening was cut into the throat 
below the place where the swallowing occurs. Through this 


Nature’s Doctors 69 

opening any food that was swallowed was caught and brought 
out into a pan, so that it did not pass into the stomach. 

4. The most dainty and tempting, yet wholesome food, was 
given into the mouth, and eagerly swallowed, then taken from 
the gullet, and none of it entered the stomach. This same food 
was again eaten and swallowed time after time. The eating and 
swallowing were natural. Not a morsel reached the stomach, 
yet the gastric juice poured into that organ in enormous 
quantities. 

5. The saliva was collected from the mouth after each act of 
swallowing; and the gastric juice was collected from the stom¬ 
ach; these were used as insolvents on other food that was not 
then at hand, and they were found sufficient to digest several 
large meals. 

6. Food that remained in the stomach stagnated there up to 
the time that the palate was excited. When the palate was ex¬ 
cited by the action of pleasing food eagerly swallowed, the stom¬ 
ach, although receiving none of the food, became flooded with 
gastric juice, and this juice together with the saliva, when taken 
away to some other scene, had the power to digest food in a 
plate. 

Rule 17 .—The eager desire for the food increases the flow of 
gastric juice to the stomach and aids its power of digestion. 

Rule 18 .—Hunger so far aids digestion that the stomach acts 
easily on foods that ordinarily would cause indigestion. 

Rule 19 .—Starvation intensifies the eagerness of the stomach 
for food, and the gastric juices are able to digest things that are 
absolutely dangerous under other conditions. 

In starvation the first touch of food to the mouth and palate 
results in a flood of saliva, and in an inrush of gastric juice at 
the stomach; and the life-cells in both these fluids act quickly 
and thoroughly, turning almost worthless sjufl: into food. Grass, 
wood, leather and weeds have been digested by starving bodies. 

The main lesson from Rule 19 is that fasting leads to an 
appetite, and this custom has been in use for thousands of years. 
We do not teach fasting except when a person wishes to under¬ 
take the course of discarding the old body, and building up a 
wholly new body; and then it must be done by common sense 
methods and not at haphazard, for fasting leads to great dan- 


70 Complete Life Building 

gers in after life. The principle, however, is a great one. It 
brings on semi-starvation, and thus creates an intensely strong 
and valuable appetite. 

Rule 20 .—The action of any pleasing matter upon the palate 
causes gastric juice to flow into an empty stomach. 

The walls of the stomach, when empty, sometimes come to¬ 
gether. As has been stated, this organ is the only part of the 
body that will digest itself. It is not true that the stomach will 
actually destroy its own walls by digesting them; although there 
are cases where this has partly occurred; but it is true that the 
walls of the stomach will do each other a great injury, slowly 
but surely, by the presence of gastric juice in an empty stom¬ 
ach. These walls are nothing but tripe. Put a piece of tripe 
raw or cooked into the stomach, and, if the gastric juice is in¬ 
vited in, this tripe will be digested like any meat. 

Rule 21 .—The habit of chewing when the stomach is empty 
tends to set up a process of digestion which congests the walls 
of the stomach, and results in weak stomach, and forms of 
gastritis. 

If you chew gum or tobacco or other thing, causing a flow of 
saliva in the mouth, at the same time you are causing, in the 
same act, a flood of gastric juice to the stomach. If the latter is 
empty, then there is nothing digestible but its own walls, and 
these are acted upon by the powerful solvent fluids in the gas¬ 
tric juice. The walls become inflamed and very red. Their 
irritation is not healed for some time after. Food will not be 
well digested by an inflamed stomach. 

Rule 22 .—The same chewing that will inflame an empty 
stomach will aid digestion when the stomach contains food. 

If you are a gum-chewer and must chew gum, chew it when 
there is food in your stomach; but never when that organ is 
empty. 

If you must smoke, then do so when there is food in your stom¬ 
ach ; for smoking on an empty stomach excites the flow of gas¬ 
tric juice, that tends to digest the walls of the stomach and to 
set up inflammation thereby. It is true that the man who is a 
slave of the pipe or cigar, gets from smoking some aid to 
digestion. 

Rule 23 .—When a hearty meal has been eaten it should end 
with the holding in the mouth of some greatly liked dainty 


Nature's Doctors 71 

which by exciting the palate, will maintain a constant flow of 
gastric juice in the stomach. 

This Rule has been employed in the cure of indigestion to 
such an extent that some such thing as a raisin, a piece of 
candy, a candy-mint, or anything that is greatly enjoyed has 
been used to stimulate digestion with regularity, and some of 
the most obstinate cases have yielded in this way. One man 
who was exceedingly fond of olives, held half an olive in his 
mouth for an hour after each meal; another a bit of very hard 
candy; another a piece of flavored chewing gum, which he was 
ashamed to chew, as he was a judge and presided at court; an¬ 
other a piece of candied ginger. 

Buie 24 .—Foods that do not please the palate should not be 
eaten. 

The reverse of this rule is not true as we shall see. But it is 
always true that a person should never eat what is not relished. 
The only exception is the eating of plain, wholesome food by 
one who has abused the stomach, and who seeks and craves unfit 
foods only. Sick stomachs have a depraved taste, and morbid 
palates demand only morbid foods. Thus an inflamed stomach 
and disordered liver rebel against milk, which is the most 
natural of all foods. 

Buie 25 .—All things that please the palate are not good to be 
eaten. 

While you should seek such foods as are pleasant to eat, you 
should not eat everything that pleases you. In the first place it 
is hard to satisfy an inflamed stomach. Until that organ is in 
good health, you cannot tell exactly what you do like, for there 
are scores of things that tickle the palate, yet that would kill 
you if you were to eat them. 

Buie 26 .—The nearer the body comes to perfect health, the 
more the stomach and palate will crave simple, plain and whole¬ 
some foods. 

Buie 27 .—If there is an intense craving for anything that is 
hurtful, the better way is to hold it in the mouth after eating a 
meal of wholesome food, but avoid swallowing any of it. 



SIXTH SECTION 


LIFE ENEMIES 


S VERYTHING that lives in a physical sense, comes to 
that change that is known as death, although nothing 
actually dies. The human body matures and takes 
on age, in its progress to the end. Despite all the 
efforts of man, the body sooner or later is dissolved, 
and its material returns back to earth from which it came. 

We have shown in the earlier part of this book that life con¬ 
sists of cells. No matter how complicated may be the organism 
that is built by the union of the cells, it is always an accumula¬ 
tion of such parts. The hardest bone is merely a mass of cells 
taking shape. The same is true of every organ, and of each 
detail of the body. 

Every time the blood courses through the system it leaves 
countless millions of new cells that are employed in maintaining 
the repair and growth of the body. In the meanwhile the activi¬ 
ties of life within the body have caused countless millions of old 
cells to spend themselves. The new become old in a short time. 
The result is that the blood soon finds itself confronted by dead 
cells in all directions. 

Rule 28 .—Every dead cell is as much a poison for its size, as 
is every dead carcass. The TRUE FOODS make less poison. 

We bury our dead. If we did not, they would quickly be¬ 
come a menace to all life. From fields of unburied dead in times 
of war, there arise pestilence and foul diseases. Yet there are at 
this moment within your body more millions of dead carcasses 

72 



















Nature’s Doctors 


73 


to the cubic inch than your mind can conceive of; and they are 
accumulating all the time. Compared with their size, they give 
forth the same stench, and the same degree of putrid dangers 
as those that are rising from the unburied dead on the battle¬ 
field. In the latter case, the dead are in the open where there is 
more freedom and more opportunity for change; while the car¬ 
casses within the human body are confined in close places, and 
their toxins are more active. 

Rule 29 .—Dead tissue within the body is the first enemy of 
life. 

By tissue is meant the masses of cells that are formed con¬ 
stantly in the process of living. When two or more cells unite, 
they are called tissue in animal life, and humanity is a part of 
the animal kingdom. It is necessary that new tissue be formed 
every minute of the day and night; and it cannot be formed 
unless the tissue that is already at hand shall break down to 
make way for it. This breaking down is the natural method by 
which life is carried on. If you could see your body, as with 
the all-embracing eye of some powerful instrument strong 
enough to detect so small a thing as a cell, you would behold 
every part of yourself dissolving, crumbling to small particles, 
melting from living tissue to dead cells; and this change would 
never cease nor even take a minute’s rest; nor would any part 
of the body be exempt from it. 

At the same time you would see new cells springing forth from 
the swift current of the blood and taking the places of those that 
were breaking down. But you would not see the dead cells pass¬ 
ing out. They would be there awaiting means of getting away; 
and for every minute they waited, a cloud of vapor would go 
forth from them, filled with what is called toxin or tissue-poison. 

Rule 30 .—Nature creates germs to destroy the dead. 

If there are unburied bodies on the battle-field, they will be¬ 
come sources of rank poisoning; and thereupon nature will send 
special germs whose duty it is to eat up the rotting flesh. In 
some places, birds that are called vultures devour the flesh in a 
short time; but in most places there are no eaters except the 
germs known as bacteria. 

The same rule holds true in disposing of the dead tissue in the 
human body. If it cannot be thrown off by the usual processes 
germs will come in and do the work. But germs, having started 


74 


Complete Life Building 

to destroy the dead tissue, will not stop there, but will involve 
the live tissue as well. This is the source of disease. 

Rule 31 .—Disease is the activity of special germs that are 
created to destroy dead tissue. 

Death, therefore, is merely a change; and destruction comes 
after death. The man who dies and is buried is not dead except 
in a general sense; but he will sooner or later become dissolved 
when the parts of his body shall have been torn asunder, sepa¬ 
rated from each other, and scattered. Each cell is eaten up by 
some disease germ. 

Rule 32 .—For every kind of dead tissue there is a kind of 
disease germ that nature has created to destroy it. 

New diseases are constantly being discovered in the human 
race. The same fact has astounded orchardists and gardeners; 
the old experts among them state that they can remember when 
there were not half as many fruit and flower pests and diseases 
as there are to-day. This increase is due to the discovery and 
development of many new varieties and more sensitive qualities 
which invite new enemies. Humanity is not confining itself to 
the simple foods that it once depended upon. The sea-scaven¬ 
gers, such as lobsters, crabs, terrapin, and the like, are but one 
example of the more general use of different foods from what 
was employed in the olden times; and dead tissue varies its 
character with the kind of food that is taken into the body. 

LAW:— Proper habits of life will prevent the develop¬ 
ment of poisons within the body. 

Rule 33 .—The first habit is that which selects true food for 
the diet. 

Rule 34 .—The second habit is that which limits the daily quan¬ 
tity of food to the actual needs of the body. 

Rule 35 .—The third habit is that which carries off the tissue 
as fast as it breaks down. 

Rule 36 .—As there can be left in the body no cause for the 
generating of poison, disease is impossible if the habits are 
correct. 

No matter how much you may expose yourself to the dangers 
of contagion you will be wholly safe, wholly immune, and there 
is no power that can bring sickness to you under these 
circumstances. 


Nature’s Doctors 


75 


LAW:— Every disease has two causes. 

Buie 37 .—The first cause of disease, known as the basis, is 
the presence in the body of dead tissue, or cells that have broken 
down and become poisons. 

Rule 38 .—The second cause of disease is the attack made by 
special germs that are created to destroy and remove the dead 
tissue. 

When these germs do not perform this duty there is great 
danger of paralysis; and infant paralysis has its origin right 
here. Other maladies arise in place of paralysis; such as nerv¬ 
ous prostration which is a slow form of paralysis; or other 
nervous distempers. This means that if you fill your body with 
dead tissue, and avoid contact with disease through the germs 
that come to save you if possible, you are likely to suffer from 
something more horrible. 

Buie 39 .—Food that is foreign to the needs of the body is 
the second enemy of life. 

Some day, when civilization has risen one notch higher in in¬ 
telligence, humanity will cease eating things that are not useful 
in building the body. There are fourteen things needed, not 
fifteen; yet people eat scores of things that can never become 
blood. On what principle a man will eat oxalic acid, when the 
blood rebels against it, is not known except that this is not an 
era of intelligent civilization. The same criticism applies to 
many other things that cause misery and suffering, and still 
are eaten. 

LAW:— Things that are wholesome in one form may 
become violent poisons in another form. 

People often wonder why one kind of food will hurt them 
when it is composed of the very best things that nature offers 
for human food. The answer to the query is found in the basic 
law that is taught in philosophy, which points out the process 
whereby all elements were derived from a single form of mat¬ 
ter; that what is poison such as arsenic, lead, prussic acid, car¬ 
bolic acid, and all else, are merely combinations of the same 
simple and innocent first atom. So elements were made. 

But elements, by special arrangement of their proportions, 
change from good foods to instant poisons. Oxygen is the most 


76 


Complete Life Building 

needed of all the elements. Carbon is the first gTeat food. The 
two together are very helpful, unless they unite in the propor¬ 
tion of one-third carbon and two-thirds oxygen, in a chemical 
sense. They then become humanity's bitter and relentless foe. 

With what eyes of wonderment chemists have looked at the 
two most valuable parts of human food, oxygen and carbon, 
and beheld their lurking dangers as they combine in this deadly 
manner, yet see their benefits to life in other combinations! 
The same law holds true in countless things that are useful to 
the health; their usefulness changing to danger when united in 
different ways. 

LAW:— Foods that do not digest together generate a 
deadly poison in the body. 

Buie 40 .—Carbon poison is the third enemy of life. 

Buie 41 .—While foods that are not salivated at the mouth 
set up poisoning in the stomach, the greater danger comes from 
foods that do not digest together after they reach the stomach. 

This is undoubtedly the most important of all the rules that 
have thus far been given in this work. It is, of course, true that 
the accumulation of dead cells all through the body must of 
necessity invite some form of disease, and there is generally 
more opportunity for escape from a fatal termination of an 
attack. On the other hand, when poison is generated in the 
stomach, it brings a pressure on the heart that instantly stops 
its action, snuffing out in a few minutes lives that are wholly 
free from disease. Three strong, healthy men in one family 
died in one year from eating meals that contained food that 
could only be digested at different periods of time, thereby set¬ 
ting up this deadly poison. These attacks come by thousands. 
In a town of small population we know of eighteen such deaths 
in three years. Doctors call it acute indigestion. Many escape 
by a close call. 

Buie 42 .—Every food has its digestive time. 

Buie 43 .—The stomach will not begin to act upon a class of 
food until it has completed the digestion of the class that pre¬ 
cedes it in point of digestive time. 

This seems like a complicated rule as it is first read, but the 
meaning is clear. Take for example a meal in which there are 
rice and chicken. Distress either blind or acute will follow; and, 


Nature’s Doctors 


77 


whether felt or not in a direct way, great nervousness and flatu¬ 
lence attend the stomach and organs for hours. Yet if the meal 
consisted wholly of chicken it would have been digested without 
trouble; or, if it consisted wholly of rice, the result would have 
been the same. 

While we do not advise it, except as an experiment, a man 
could sit down to a chicken dinner and eat nothing but chicken, 
well cooked and seasoned, and never feel distress from it, pro¬ 
vided his system were in good condition at the time. Such an 
experiment has been made quite often. 

Under the LAW, the eating of both rice and chicken at the 
same meal will result in the formation of poison in the stomach. 
Let us see why. In the first place they do not digest together. 
Under Rule 43, it is stated that the stomach will not begin to act 
on one class of food while another is being digested; it will com¬ 
plete one class first. This fact is one of the most important in 
the whole study of health. It was never known until recently. 

It has always been taught that some foods digest easier and 
more quickly than others; but it was supposed that foods of 
slow digestion were carried along with foods of quick digestion, 
both side by side and were acted upon together, the slow class 
coming out of the stomach at a later period of time. Since 
surgery and other tests have brought the facts to light, exactly 
as they exist, it is now known that the gastric juice will act only 
on the class of food that is most easily digested, and the other 
class will be compelled to wait. While waiting the danger 
occurs. 

Rule 44 .—Foods that remain in the stomach when not acted 
upon by the gastric juice, quickly generate poison. 

Such foods are said to stagnate. They take on this dangerous 
condition when there is no gastric juice in the stomach, as when 
the mouth does not salivate food or the palate is not pleased; 
and this stagnation will occur even when the food is all of one 
class. 

But, assuming that the food is salivated and the palate 
pleased, the more serious danger arises when two different classes 
of food are allowed to enter the stomach at the same meal. We 
may take the simple case of rice and chicken, although there are 
hundreds of others that teach the same lesson. Some years ago 
a man asked us why he always had distress after eating rice with 


78 


Complete Life Building 

chicken when rice alone, or chicken without rice, never hurt 
him. The answer was plain. The rice was acted on by the stom¬ 
ach in less than an hour, while the chicken had to wait in the 
stomach until the rice had passed out. But the stomach carries 
on quick decay when its contents are not being acted on by the 
gastric juice. It was like eating chicken that had spoiled be¬ 
fore it was swallowed. 

Food rots in the stomach. 

The only prevention of rotting is digestion; and if digestion is 
held up there is no other course than to rot; and this means the 
formation of the deadly poison. 

LAW:— All foods belong to some digestive time class. 

Buie 45 .—The shortest time in which foods may be digested 
is known as the FIVE MINUTE PERIOD; and the following 
foods, or their equivalent, are included in the 

FIVE MINUTE CLASS 

1. White of raw egg; passes into the blood without digestion. 

2. Yolk of raw egg. 

3. Beef juice. 

4. Clear soup, or bouillon. 

5. Butter. 

6. Sugar. 

7. Honey free from comb. 

The great advantage of the foods of the FIVE MINUTE 
CLASS is in the fact that they may be combined with the foods 
of almost any other class; for they digest so easily that they do 
not delay materially the action of the stomach on the foods that 
require more time. They are out of the way before ferment can 
be started among the others; whereas, in the case of foods of the 
longer periods, time enough elapses to set up the poison that 
destroys the health. 

Buie 46 .—The second time class of foods is known as those of 
the ONE HOUR PERIOD; and the following foods are included 
therein. Owing to their great number, and to assist in finding 
them, they are presented in alphabetical order. 


Nature’s Doctors 
ONE HOUR CLASS 


79 


All the following foods are digested in ONE HOUR or less: 

1. Almonds, roasted, and ground into fine meal. 

2. Apples, sweet or mild, when perfectly ripe and mellow. 

3. Arrowroot well cooked. 

4. Asparagus, avoiding the fibrous parts. 

5. Barley, well cooked; only the pearl barley is good. 

6. Beef; if lean and cooked rare. 

7. Beets, if new and tender. Avoid all vegetable fibers. 

8. Bread, when not new. The whiter the flour the less value 
it has. 

9. Buttermilk; it digests in twenty minutes or less. It is 
the best medical food in the world, as it makes new blood quickly 
and repairs diseased organs. 

10. Buttered toast, if buttered just at time of eating. 

11. Cake, when old and plain. 

12. Celery, either raw or cooked. 

13. Cherries, when perfectly ripe, mellow and sweet. 

14. Chestnuts, boiled and eaten hot. 

15. Chicken broth. 

16. Chocolate, if absolutely pure, which is rare. 

17. Cocoa, if pure. 

18. Corn; green com is meant; but it must be thoroughly 
chewed. 

19. Corn meal; if cooked three hours or more. 

20. Corn starch. 

21. Crackers of the bready kind; not crisp crackers. 

22. Cream. 

23. Cream cheese, when home-made. 

24. Dates. Sterilize them by steaming twenty minutes. 

25. Double-bake bread; bread sliced, and baked in oven again. 

26. Egg yolks; cooked yolks only, either hard or soft. 

27. Figs. Sterilize them by steaming twenty minutes. 

28. Flour from whole wheat, with bran removed. 

29. Hominy; if cooked three hours. 

30. Junket; generally twenty minutes or less. 

31. Lamb; if young and not cooked hard. 

32. Lettuce. 

33. Maple sugar and syrup. 


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34. Macaroni. 

35. Milk toast. 

36. Milk; condensed, raw, or cooked; the raw being' the best. 

37. Moss; Iceland, Irish, or sea moss. 

38. Old bread, white or whole wheat. 

39. Olives. 

40. Onions, if boiled. 

41. Oysters; raw, or stewed; not fried. 

42. Peas; if green, young and tender. 

43. Prunes; if well cooked. 

44. Potatoes; white; if baked and mealy. 

45. Potatoes; white; boiled and mealy. 

46. Potatoes; mashed; if made from mealy boiled white kind. 

47. Raisins, raw or cooked. 

48. Natural rice if cooked so as to be light and feathery. 
[White rice is not half as nutritive as “natural rice.” 

49. Sago. 

50. Spinach in milk or cream. 

51. Squash. 

52. Tapioca. Avoid pearl tapioca. 

53. Vermicelli. 

Here are fifty-three different articles or kinds of food that are 
digested completely by the stomach in one hour or less. Slight 
variations will change the time of digestibility; as, for instance, 
if apples are not so mellow that they naturally burst their tiny 
fruit-cells, they require several hours to be digested, and but a 
small part of the apple can then be fully acted on by the stomach. 

In the case of beets, age makes a great difference, for the fibre 
in the beet becomes tough. 

There is no form of barley now that is useful as food, unless 
the broth made in Scotland be taken as an example, except what 
is called pearl barley. That is the starch center of the barley 
berry, and is very easily digested, and is nutritious, although 
an unbalanced food like white-bread. 

Beef becomes harder to digest in proportion as it is cooked. 
It is at its best as food when merely heated through by a very 
hot fire. The outer edge may require four or five hours to 
digest while the interior will digest in much less than an hour. 

Buttermilk is usually digested in less than twenty minutes. 

Chocolate is not obtained in a pure state. One test of im- 


Nature’s Doctors 


81 


purity is to place it in a closed drawer for a day or two; then 
open the drawer slightly and notice the odor; if it is a bit dis¬ 
agreeable, bitter, or peculiar, the chocolate is “made,” and is 
not natural. Some kinds are built of earth, some of ochre col¬ 
ored with black walnut juice, which is a poison, and some of 
anything that will pass as a close imitation when sweetened. 
Three hundred samples were sent to us from as many different 
places and all were rank adulterations. Cocoa is likewise imi¬ 
tated, but not to the extent of chocolate. 

Cocoa-shells are pure and make a valuable drink with milk. 

Cake can be made in a way that it can be eaten in the place 
of bread, and be as safe and wholesome. 

Dates, figs and raisins possess, pound for pound, fully as 
much meat value as beef or other flesh. In countries where 
dates, figs and raisons are eaten freely, no meat is desired or 
required, and there was never a case of appendicitis or stomach 
trouble; and rheumatism is wholly unknown. 

Old bread made from white flour is digested in less than an 
hour; but new bread requires more time, as it generates carbon 
poison, and is raised by gas from yeast or baking powder. 

Junket is useful only for a very delicate stomach, as is moss; 
both being easily absorbed in a very short time and yielding but 
slight food value. 

Potatoes that are soggy are hurtful; they should be cooked in 
a way that will keep them mealy and light. Green skin potatoes 
are a poison. 

Pearl tapioca is made from waxy and old potatoes, and is 
merely an imitation of tapioca. 

CAUTIONS ABOUT THE USE OF FOODS AND FRUITS 

1. As a rule all foods that will digest in one hour or less will 
mix when taken together; or any two of them, or more, when 
taken at the same meal. But under some conditions certain of 
these foods do not mingle well when combined. Milk and meat 
were not intended to go together. Fruits and meat do not har¬ 
monize. Acid fruits and milk are not best together. But all 
very ripe and mellow fruits go well with milk. 

2. Fruits that are eaten for the vitamins should follow a meal, 
as should most fruits. When intended as blood cleansers, they may 
precede a meal. Baked sweet apples if mellow before they are 


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baked, blend well with milk, and for persons of sedentary habits 
this combination makes an ideal breakfast every alternate morn¬ 
ing. All other native juicy fruits should be eaten a full hour 
before any meal. 

3. The food-fruits, like dates, figs and raisins, mix well with 
all the one hour foods, excepting, in some instances, meats and 
vegetables. 

4. Meats and green vegetables go well together; and this com¬ 
bination is to be preferred. Vegetables and the regular foods, 
like bread and cereals, do not blend perfectly. 

5. Any person suffering from congestion of the stomach or 
digestive organs will not easily digest milk. Old people, for 
this reason, believe that milk hurts them; but, as soon as the 
congestion is removed, the conditions favor the use of milk. 

6. The best combinations of the ONE HOUR FOODS are as 
follows: 

Any product of any cereal with any other product of any 
cereal, as bread, corn meal, hominy, macaroni, pearl barley, 
arrowroot, coarse tapioca, corn starch, almonds, chestnuts, pota¬ 
toes, and all starchy foods in the one hour class. 

Dates, figs and raisins are best when eaten with any of the 
foregoing cereal foods, except potatoes. 

Asparagus, beets, celery, lettuce, spinach, squash and onions 
are best when eaten at the same meal with soups, broths and 
meats; excluding all other foods at the same meal. In summer 
time, if you wish to keep the blood cool, you may make a meal 
occasionally of the foregoing vegetables alone, omitting the 
meats. This has been done frequently with great success. As 
it is an unbalanced diet, it should not be used often, as neuralgia 
will follow. 

CAUTION as to FRUITS.—Remember that the best of ap¬ 
ples, oranges, bananas and other juice fruits will generally in¬ 
crease the inflammation of a congested system, and set up uric 
acid poisons in the body. To a person in good health, these 
fruits would prove a blessing; but they cannot be assimilated by 
a congested system. NEURALGIA is the first indication that 
fruits are setting up dangerous conditions. Then RHEUMA¬ 
TISM may follow. HEADACHES can often be traced to the 
eating of fruits. Study these things constantly. Find out what 
hurts you and what helps you. 


Nature’s Doctors 


83 


Bide' 47 .—The next class of foods are called those of the TWO 
HOUR PERIOD; and the following are included therein: 

TWO HOUR CLASS 

1. Artichoke. 

2. Beans, when green and tender. 

3. Buckwheat. 

4. Bread that is new. 

5. Capon. 

6. Chicken. 

7. Carrots. 

8. Codfish. 

9. Carp. 

10. Cream cheese; meaning the factory kind. 

11. Graham-flour bread. 

12. Haddock. 

13. Halibut. 

14. Herring, fresh. 

15. Lentils. 

16. Mackerel, fresh. 

17. Nuts; including herein only filberts, pistachio, pignolia 
and hazel-nuts. 

18. Oatmeal. 

19. Oat groats. 

20. Oysters, fancy roast. 

21. Pancakes. 

22. Parsnips. 

23. Pigeon, young. 

24. Potatoes, not too new; meaning young white potatoes. 

25. Rye. 

26. Smelt. 

27. Sole. 

28. Salsify. 

29. Tomatoes. 

30. Trout. 

31. Turbot. 

32. Turkey. 

33. Veal. 

Here are thirty-three different foods that are digested in about 
two hours. They belong to the TWO HOUR PERIOD. Not 


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all of them are perfect food; but, being in use, we have included 
them, as some people can eat all kinds without harm. 

Those people who suffer from rheumatism must let tomatoes 
alone, as oxalic acid is very abundant in them and quickly sets 
up this painful disease; as will also pieplant, rhubarb, or any 
fruit that is acid, cranberries, pickles, vinegar, and similar 
articles. 

In the use of fish it is important that it be fresh, and per¬ 
fectly so, for the least taint is likely to set up ptomain poisoning 
which comes so quickly and with such deadly effect that there 
is no time to fight for life. Thousands die every year of this 
poisoning, and chiefly from eating fish, sea food, or meats that 
are not in the best condition. Veal is also a problem; if taken 
from very young calves it is never good food; and if not kept 
fresh it very speedily becomes a poison. 

Oysters when raw and clean are good food for some persons; 
but cooking them changes their value, especially if they are 
cooked enough to coagulate them. When fried they are very 
hard to digest and set up trouble. 

HOME MADE JELLIES, canned fruits and dried fruits be¬ 
long to the two hour class unless they are products of fruit that 
was not fully ripe when put up, in which case they are not 
good to eat as food. All fruit, however, even if good, must be 
used subject to the CAUTION given under the ONE HOUR 
CLASS of foods in this section. 

Rule 48 .—Foods that require THREE HOURS TO DIGEST 
are referred to as belonging to the THREE HOUR PERIOD. 
The following are included: 

THREE HOUR CLASS 

1. Beef, crisp lean, and all fat. 

2. Beets, if old. 

3. Cauliflower. 

4. Cabbage. 

5. Corn, canned. 

6. Flounder. 

7. Ham, boiled. 

8. Herring, salted or smoked. 

9. Liver. 


Nature’s Doctors 


85 


10. Lobster. 

11. Mutton. 

12. Nuts; but including only pecans and hickory nuts. 

13. Oyster plant. 

14. Peas, dried, or split. 

15. Potatoes, sweet, and yams; not white potatoes. 

16. Salmon. 

17. Spinach cooked with fat meat. 

18. Yenison. 

Here are eighteen articles of food that belong to the THREE 
HOUR PERIOD. Some of them are not suitable to the best 
health, and all of them require a patient and strong stomach to 
digest them. They do not build new body tissue very fast, and 
it is supposed that they tax the vitality in the effort to digest 
them. On the other hand, they serve to give staying power to 
a person who is to work hard and long and who wishes to have 
food in his stomach as long as possible. 

They sometimes set up poisons in the blood and organs. 

If you take junket, it digests so quickly and easily that it has 
no staying power; and in about half an hour you will be very 
hungry again. If you eat foods of the three hour period, you 
will not suffer from a long absence of food from the stomach, 
and this will be an advantage to a strong person who has hard 
.work to do. 


Buie 49 .—Foods that require FOUR HOURS TO DIGEST 
are referred to as belonging to the FOUR HOUR PERIOD. 
They include the following familiar articles of diet: 

FOUR HOUR CLASS 

1. Bacon. 

2. Brown bread. 

3. Beans that are old, including baked beans. 

4. Crabs. 

5. Ducks. 

6. Doughnuts; also crullers and fried pies and fritters. 

7. Lard. 

8. Meats, cooked hard; also re-cooked meats; also pork. 

9. Oysters, fried. 



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10. Onions, fried. 

11. Peanuts and English walnuts. 

12. Potatoes, fried hard, but not chips. 

13. Turnips, and old or woody vegetables. 

The four hour class looks formidable, and it is a terror to 
many stomachs. It slays its thousands every year, or rather 
every week, which is nearer the truth. Still there are some 
people who can keep fairly well for some years and eat these 
things. 

Rule 50. —Foods that require FIVE HOURS to digest are re¬ 
ferred to as belonging to the FIVE HOUR PERIOD. They in¬ 
clude the following well known articles: 

FIVE HOUR CLASS 

1. Barley bread and whole barley. 

2. Cheese; meaning the ordinary American and foreign kinds. 

3. Clams. 

4. Eggs, fried. 

5. Ham, fried. 

6. Nuts that are very oily. 

7. Pork, cooked crisp. 

8. Goose. 

9. Saratoga chips; or thin fried potatoes, if crisp. 

10. Pastry, piecrust and patties. 

11. Shrimps. 

12. Suet. 

13. Mincemeat. 

14. Fruit puddings and fruit cakes. 

15. Rich sauces, dressings and gravies. 

NUTS: CAUTION: For chestnuts and almonds, see the 
ONE HOUR CLASS. Other NUTS are mentioned in the other 
classes. Peanuts and peanut butter, although having some food 
value, cause congestion of the stomach and hurt the liver. The 
oily nuts, like black walnuts, cream nuts, Brazil nuts, etc., are 
unfit for food, although having value in case of starvation. 

Rule 51. —Foods, or so-called foods, and other things that are 
eaten, that pass through the system unchanged by the process of 
digestion, are referred to as belonging to the NEVER PERIOD, 
and they include the following among many others: 


Nature’s Doctors 


87 


THE NEVER CLASS 

1. Apples, when not mellowed by nature; either raw or 
cooked. 

2. Bran, whether in graham flour or otherwise. 

3. Cranberries in any form. 

4. Catsup. 

5. Cocoanut, raw or cooked. 

6. Cucumbers, radishes and the like. 

7. Currants, dried. 

8. Crisp parts of meat, pastry and potatoes where nothing is 
left but the crisp portion. 

9. Gelatine. 

10. Hulls, as the outer layers of cereals. 

11. Peppers, also black pepper and red pepper. 

12. Pickles, and all pickled goods. 

13. Radishes. 

14. Rind of lemon. 

15. Rind of orange. 

16. Spices of all kinds. 

17. Tendons, muscles and cartilage that are ground fine in 
sausages. 

18. Unripe parts of fruit. 

19. Various ingredients that are included in French and other 
foreign cooking. 

The members of the “NEVER CLASS” may go through the 
body and do no direct harm at times, depending on the condi¬ 
tions met with. If there is vitality present, and no serious 
amount of taint, cucumbers, radishes, pickles, and similar in¬ 
digestible articles may merely force their way through and 
bring no danger; but the same person on some other day with 
slightly different conditions of the body, may be killed by any 
one of these things. Radishes have slain many strong, healthy 
men and women; yet ordinarily they are safe, but never useful. 

Apples, when each fruit cell within is not ripened and burst 
open by natural mellowing, bring rheumatism, neuralgia, in¬ 
digestion and other distempers to the body; yet, on the other 
hand, when nature has burst the tiny fruit cells and released 


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the juices, apples are the most advantageous of all the distilled 
fruits in nature. Cooking will not aid nature in opening the 
cells; the ripening process must take place itself. 

Bran is the outer hull of wheat. It is often ground into what 
is called graham flour; and its sharpness and indigestibility 
killed the man who invented it, and after whom it was named. 
There is always good lurking between two extremes. Whole 
wheat flour without the bran is the one greatest food in the 
world; yet, with the bran it is dangerous. For this reason all 
persons should avoid breakfast foods, as they are made from 
mill sweepings of bran and other coarse stuff ground fine, but 
still as sharp as needle points against the stomach and intes¬ 
tines. Fine grinding makes them sharper and more dangerous. 

Cranberries themselves are wholly indigestible; but they have 
some value because of the sugar that is cooked with them; still 
they set up rheumatic conditions in the blood, like any sour fruit. 

Catsup, relishes, chowchow, spices, and the long train of un¬ 
natural things that are used to stimulate a false appetite in a 
morbid stomach, are useless from every standpoint, and some¬ 
times lead quickly on to appendicitis, as they inflame the intes¬ 
tines and destroy its membrane. The stomach when healthy is 
a healthy animal; and no healthy animal will eat these strange 
things that human ingenuity, working in a bad cause, has 
concocted. 

Currants, if made from small grapes, would be very useful; 
but those that are known as the Corinth berry, and that come 
from that locality, after being dried and sweetened, or in their 
natural state, are poisons, and pass through the human body 
unchanged. They lack value, and are also a source of danger. 
On the other hand, raisins that come from grapes, such as are 
used everywhere, are very valuable. Dried currants do much 
harm to the stomach, while raisins do much good. You can find 
many black varieties of berries on plants, even in this country, 
which could be made into currants; and would pass for the usual 
dried currants; but, being poisonous on the plants before they 
are picked, they are equally poisonous afterwards. 

Gelatine formerly had food value, although but slight. Today 
the glue-made gelatine will not mix with the gastric juice of the 
stomach, and it often remains for a day or more in that organ. 

Orange and lemon rind enter largely into modern cooking; 


Nature’s Doctors 89 

but they are useless and dangerous. They increase the doctor’s 

bin. 

Sausages are made from everything that cannot be served or 
sold in any other way. Being ground fine, they look all right; 
and, being nicely flavored, they taste wonderfully good; but it 
is the after reckoning that must furnish food for reflection. If 
you will take a few pounds of sawdust, fry it to a crisp in the 
pan, season it well, and eat it with sugar and milk, or with 
cream, you will pronounce the food-imitation a success if you 
do not know from what it is made. You can take straw, com 
stalks, and dried splinters, make them crisp by proper cooking, 
and sell them for a new breakfast food, costing you about a cent 
a hundred boxes, outside of the labor, and selling for ten dollars 
a hundred boxes, and you will have in your grasp a modern 
form of enterprise that out-sellers Sellers, for there’s millions 
in it. 

Rule 52 .—Adulterations constitute the fourth enemy of life. 

These might be said to come under Rule 39 which says that 
food that is foreign to the body is the second enemy; but there 
is a difference between foreign food and adulterated food. The 
body requires fourteen different kinds of elements, and these are 
all found in a single food such as whole wheat flour with the 
bran removed, or eggs, or milk, or beef that has been lightly 
cooked, any one of which will maintain life indefinitely. The 
fourteen needs are also found in combinations of two or more 
kinds of food; while, in some cases, it may be necessary for a 
person to eat several kinds in order to secure nutrition for the 
body. The whole object of eating is to furnish the system with 
these fourteen needed elements. 

If only thirteen are eaten, sickness will follow. 

If fifteen are eaten, then the extra element is foreign to the 
body, and must be driven off and out at the expense of loss of 
vitality and often of health. Now, as a matter of fact, people 
eat many more than the needed fourteen elements; for they do 
not know what is food and what is not food, except in the sim¬ 
plest forms. For this very reason, this book is a necessity in 
every house at the present day, as will be seen. 

In addition to the foreign material present in badly selected 
foods, the manufacturers of preparations called foods, add imi- 


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tations that are actual poisons. On the one hand we see that 
dried currants which are eaten as food, contain material that is 
foreign to the body. We also find in tomatoes a large propor¬ 
tion of oxalic acid which is foreign to the body. These are but 
two samples of foods that contain matter that the system is 
compelled to throw off in order to free itself from danger. 
Coffee and tea both contain such extra matter. Now all these 
things can remain pure and yet do harm because they contain 
foreign elements. But when tea and coffee are adulterated, the 
dangers increase. 

Chocolate is the worst adulterated article on the market to¬ 
day. It is almost impossible to obtain it in a pure state, al¬ 
though those who make it and those who sell it, are ready to 
swear it is pure. 

Next to chocolate comes baking powder; this alone is the 
cause of more organic disease than any other thing, for all peo¬ 
ple make bread and cake from baking powder. The claims of 
purity are strong, but the facts belie these claims. 

Candies are adulterated from the simple white kinds to the 
more elaborate sorts; the sugar from which they are made is 
not pure; and “mineral sugar / 1 called saccharine, is added to 
white clay to give the needed sweetness. A little of this “min¬ 
eral sugar ’’ will not do harm, and is useful in case of diabetes; 
but its continued use, and presence in large quantities, as in 
most candies and syrups, soon weakens the body, for it is for¬ 
eign to human life and cannot enter into the making of tissue. 
Coloring matter is also present in candies and fruit syrups, in 
many poisonous forms. 

Fruit syrups, fruit juices, soda-fountain drinks, canned 
goods, and preserves of all kinds, are adulterated to-day to an 
extent that makes them distinct dangers of a most grave char¬ 
acter. They should be avoided. The same is true of most ice 
creams; but not all. 

White flour besides being chemically “bleached” is given 
weight by the addition of finely powdered white earth in which 
alum is liberally distributed to make it bake readily. This is 
the most serious menace of the present day, as bread is the staff 
of life, so-called. 

Drugs and medicines are so much adulterated that they have 
lost their efficiency to a great extent, which may be a blessing 


Nature’s Doctors 


91 


in disguise. Beers contain, as shown by actual analysis, as 
many as 123 adulterants, culminating in arsenic and other vio¬ 
lent poisons that kill slowly. Kidney diseases are sure to follow. 
Out of over two thousand deaths from Bright’s disease, where 
the malady came on without warning and was at the incurable 
stage when discovered, all but three were directly due to beer 
and liquor drinking; and in the three cases the victims were 
users of canned goods to a large extent. Wines and liquors 
to-day are hopelessly adulterated; and yet those who offer them 
for sale are ready to make any kind of oath that they are strictly 
pure. Cigarettes, and even the wrappers or papers in which 
they are made, and which can be bought separately, are treated 
to a habit-forming drug that makes a slave of the user; some 
of the worst “fiends” having been started in their downward 
course by this snare. 

The eternal desire to make money by weakening and ruining 
the human race is so dominant to-day that there seems to be little 
chance of saving the next generation. Legislation is not easily 
secured; prosecutions are not pushed with sincerity; juries are 
the weakest part of the whole American system; and punishment 
rarely follows. For every criminal who is checked in this deluge 
of murder, a hundred others rise to take his place. The ac¬ 
quittal of the beef trust shows how little can be expected from 
American juries. 

Rule 53 .—Preservatives constitute the fifth enemy of life. 

In addition to the floods of adulterations that enter into al¬ 
most everything that is intended for the human stomach, there 
are scores of different kinds of chemicals that are added to 
meats, foods, drinks, and other things, in order to keep them 
from decay, in the first instance; and in order to make decayed 
goods salable in the second instance. 

Thus if rotten tomatoes are to be canned, or put into catsup, 
they are sweetened by benzoate of soda. This chemical is not a 
dangerous poison; but its continued use breaks down tissue in 
the body. 

Rule 54 .—Whatever will destroy the germs of decay in food, 
will destroy the life-making cells in the human body. 

By tests made by the United States Government in order to 
please adulterators and preservative-users, it was found that ben- 


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zoate of soda will not kill a man, nor will it make him sick, 
unless used in too great proportion; but it will stop the forma¬ 
tion of life-building tissue, without which he cannot build a 
vigorous body, nor repair the waste and loss that occur in daily 
life. 

A preservative is a chemical poison, having a slow and steady 
power to check growth of decay in foods, and likewise to check 
growth of tissue in the body; for tissue grows on the same prin¬ 
ciple that decay thrives; both having the same original cell as 
the basis of development. 

All meats are embalmed; all canned goods are subjected to 
similar treatment; most package goods are likewise “saved”; 
and there is a never-ending flow of foreign material into the 
things that humanity must eat. If you could go into any fruit¬ 
canning establishment and witness what is going on, you could 
never again eat such fruits. Women who work in tomato can¬ 
ning factories are always cured for life from eating canned 
tomatoes. In factories where corn, beans and other things are 
canned, there is the sickening stench of partly rotten foods; 
and these foods would be rejected were it not for the fact that 
benzoate of soda is used to cover up the decay. In the absence 
of that chemical, the goods would “speak for themselves,” and 
the factories would be compelled to use only fresh foods, or to 
better look after those in hand. 

In summing up this section of the present book, we will review 

THE FIVE ENEMIES OF HUMAN LIFE 

1. Dead Tissue within the Body. (Rule 29.) 

2. Food that is Foreign to the Body. (Rule 39.) 

3. Carbon Poison from Indigestion. (Rule 40.) 

4. Adulterations. (Rule 52.) 

5. Preservatives. (Rule 53.) 



SEVENTH SECTION 


FACTS ABOUT FOOD 



^LL THE LAWS AND RULES set forth in this book 
are the result of vast numbers of experiments and 
tests made under all conditions and for all classes of 
^2 people and all states of health. They keep on prov¬ 
ing their reliability the more they are tried, and they 
do not at any time show error or inaccuracy. They are the only 
complete sets of rules and laws of health that can be found to¬ 
day that furnish a safe guide to follow. 

Do not allow yourself to be caught by the theory of some so- 
called 1 ‘ expert especially a physician who calls himself an 
“expert on foods”; for there are no medical food experts living 
to-day whose teachings are an all-round guide to the public. 
They have their fads, and push them at any cost to violent ex¬ 
tremes. The Ralston Health Club has no fads, and is world¬ 
wide in its influence for doing good. It seeks the plain facts, and 
the living truths; nothing else. 

Learn to exercise your good native common sense. 

Some people believe one thing to-day, and to-morrow they 
are completely turned around, as some other belief has captured 
them. Such people must either develop a mental backbone, or 
else stop reading and listening; they are straws that are blown 
about by every gust no matter how slight. They swallow all 
they hear and read, and can be made to believe that the sun 
sets in the east or rises in the west. 

93 









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Complete Life Building 

Do not join the ranks of “easy believers’’ in every notion 
that you read or hear. 

Some doctors seek popularity by telling their patients to eat 
what they want, when they want, and as much as they want. 

That kind of advice pleases the patients, and so the doctors 
gain the good opinion of their patrons. 

That kind of advice increases sickness, and so adds a new 
source of income to the doctors. 

“What’s the use?” asks a well-known physician. “I have 
been trying to tell my patients that all diseases have their be¬ 
ginnings in wrong habits of eating, and I am not so popular as 
I would be if I told them to eat what they like. In any event 
they will eat what they like, so what’s the use of telling them 
the truth?” 

In a great medical convention recently held in this country, 
the question was put, What proportion of the people are free 
from stomach trouble? The medical men knew what they were 
talking about because they came from the midst of their own 
patients from all over the land; and it was the final opinion 
that ninety-five men and women in every hundred were victims 
of errors in eating; or, in other words, in the United States 
alone, there are nearly ninety-five million sufferers from stomach 
troubles. 

Yet medical “experts” tell the people to eat what they want, 
as much as they want, and when they want it, regardless of 
every rule of life and law of common sense. 

The true physicians do not give this vicious advice. 

YOUR family physician is honest. 

He will tell you that all sickness, all maladies, all diseases, 
begin in wrong food selection, or in wrong methods of eating; 
no matter what direct cause may spring the trap. The house 
that is rotted in its foundations may not topple over until the 
wind strikes it, or the rains undermine it, or its own weight 
crushes it; but the first cause is in the house itself. Had such 
first cause not existed, the outside agencies could not have 
wrecked it. So the human body is a temple, the material of 
which may be sound or unsound, if sound, no disease can harm 
it; if unsound, it becomes prey to every approaching danger, 
and the enemy that first seizes it generally controls its condition. 


Nature’s Doctors 


95 


In the last ten years doctors have increased, diseases have in¬ 
creased, surgeons have increased, operations have increased,— 
all, all ten times faster than the population has increased. Dur¬ 
ing this period, the people have been more and more reckless in 
their habits of eating; and every honest doctor who is not afraid 
to speak the truth states frankly that the fearful increase in 
sickness is due to the errors of eating. 

Rule 55 .—The human body cannot be anything else than what 
it eats. 

When you build a house, you put certain material in it; and 
the house is the result of what enters into its construction. You 
cannot build of mud-blocks and expect a marble mansion. The 
same fact is true of the human body: it is the result of the mate¬ 
rial that enters into its construction. Exactly what goes in at 
the stomach comes forth in the character of the flesh and bones. 

Rule 56 .—The person who is swayed by the reckless statements 
of self-styled experts on food will always be at sea in a rudder¬ 
less boat. 

If you have faith in the rules and laws of this book, cling to 
them against the wild contradictions of doctors who seek fame 
and money by their sensational claims and opinions. A great 
doctor recently said: ‘‘Eat a heavy meal just before going to 
bed every night.’’ The next day another great doctor said, “If 
you eat a heavy meal just before going to bed at night, you will 
have sallow faces, dead eyes, and great hollows under them.” 

You should sail in a boat that has a destination, that is con¬ 
trolled in its direction by a rudder, and that proceeds on its 
course in a way that commands the confidence of those who are 
aboard. For this reason, you should accept the rules and laws 
of this book against all other opinions. Our whole work for a 
lifetime has been devoted to this ONE CAUSE, to know the 
facts on this ONE SUBJECT, and we have greater opportunity 
for ascertaining the full truth than any individual on earth. 
This statement is not made in a spirit of boasting; but with a 
desire to bring all thinking people into a realization of the dan¬ 
ger of following sensational leaders in so important a matter as 
the health and life of the body. 

The Second Life Enemy, as stated heretofore, refers to things 
that are called food, but that are not. In this place we will pre¬ 
sent a brief list of the more common: 


96 


Complete Life Building 

SO-CALLED FOODS THAT ARE NO® FOODS 

1. The foreign matter in all unripe fruits. 

2. All forms of TEA. Tea at all times is a poison. 

3. That part of COFFEE that is developed by too much 
boiling. The only safe part of coffee is that which is set free into 
the water in the first few minutes of boiling. 

4. Rinds of lemons and oranges. All cook books include 
many things that make use of such rinds. They are dangerous 
poisons. 

5. Bran, or the outer hull of wheat. Also the outer hull of 
rice, and other grains; the least hurtful being that of oats. 

6. Chocolate and cocoa contain much foreign matter. 

7. Tomatoes are not food. They also contain oxalic acid, a 
poison. 

8. Pieplant, or rhubarb, and other weeds that are eaten. 

9. Dried currants. They are poison berries, and not of the 
raisin class, which is always beneficial. 

10. Pearl tapioca. The regular tapioca is good food; the 
pearl is bad. 

11. Potatoes that have green skins. The sun has changed the 
character of the “greened’’ potato. 

12. Potatoes that have grown waxy; they cease to be true 
food, as new chemical changes have been set up. 

13. The outer layers of ripe beans and ripe peas. 

14. Clams, lobsters, crabs, terrapin. 

15. Peppers and pepper; spices, cinnamon, ginger, citron and 
other things used in cooking. Ginger and black pepper used 
sparingly are not hurtful, although non-food in fact. 

16. Sweet potatoes and yams contain parts that are not food. 

17. Cranberries. Gooseberries. Native currants. Tart apples. 

18. Lard and crisp fats. 

19. Graphite used in making hotel gravies. 

20. Catsup. Chowchow. Pickles. Table sauces. Cucumbers. 

21. Radishes. Strawberries. Vinegar. 

22. Tendons and muscles in sausage. 

23. Viscera or entrails, sweetbreads, kidneys, brains, hearts 
and hoofs, including hoof-made gelatin, and gelatin made from 
glue elements. These things appear in sausage form, and in 


Nature’s Doctors 97 

gelatins; and should be avoided as the worst of enemies, for 
they contain the dead within the dead. 

24. Corn-stalk juice, such as is found to-day in glucose, syrups, 
candies and very largely in fruit juices, canned fruits, and the 
like. This stalk juice destroys the kidneys in time. 

25. Corn-stalks themselves. They are not food, but are found 
in many breakfast foods, and specialties, crisp or otherwise. 
Sawdust, by being disguised, is capable of being passed as break¬ 
fast food. 

26. Straw and coarse reeds, ground into breakfast foods and 
camouflaged by crisp cookery. 

27. Clay, white earth, lime, and similar minerals that are em¬ 
ployed in candy and bread making. Many people eat clay but 
it has no food value of any kind, and lowers the vitality. 

28. Foreign ingredients that enter largely into fancy .cook¬ 
ing. Nearly all French and Oriental cooking is poisonous. 

29. Cocoanut when imported is not easily digested. 

The list given shows what efforts are made to achieve variety 
in eating regardless of the question of what value the things 
are that enter into so many dishes. Nature shows that she uses 
fourteen elements in making and sustaining the human body; 
that she will not accept fifteen or more; for which reason, all 
elements in excess of the fourteen are certain to be rejected by 
the body. The process of rejection and ejection causes loss of 
vitality, in addition to keeping out the desired class of foods that 
are needed. More than this, the foreign matter sets up a false 
standard of relish, so that the taste of a person is perverted and 
wholesome things are scoffed at. Compare these so-called foods 
with those of the better lists, and make your selection. At the 
same time, do not think that all the non-foods are poisons. 
Tomatoes, which contain the basis of rheumatism, may be eaten 
for years without causing this malady in a person who is not 
subject to such trouble. Gooseberries are the national fruit of 
England where rheumatism flourishes, and there are people 
there and in America who can eat gooseberries for a long time 
without getting the gout or rheumatism. Yet tomatoes, goose¬ 
berries, pieplant, tart apples, native currants, vinegar and 
similar things of the sour class cause nearly all the rheumatism 
in the world. 

The enemies of life may be overcome by food selection. One 


98 Complete Life Building 

class of enemies includes the non-foods of the list just given 
herein. 

The two remaining classes are those that include adulterations 
and preservatives. These are so slyly put in things that you 
would be surprised to know how often you take these poisons in 
your system. Read again the accounts given under Rules 52 and 
53 in the earlier part of this book. You could prove your good 
citizenship by personally holding your law-makers responsible 
for two achievements: 

1. The discovery of adulterations and the use of preservatives 
in foods through legislative investigation. Insist that the law¬ 
makers who represent your district in your State and in Con¬ 
gress, fight for a law that will maintain chemical analyses of all 
things you wish examined, and without cost to the public, so 
that you may know what is safe to eat. 

2. The punishment by imprisonment of all persons who, 
through love of money, adulterate foods; and the punishment 
under the capital crimes law, of all persons who deliberately 
cause deaths by the use of poisons in food. One hundred thou¬ 
sand children died last year because food-makers sought to make 
money by adulterating the necessaries of life. 

See that your foods are constantly and honestly analyzed at 
public expense. 

See that your criminals are punished severely enough to check 
this evil. 


DRINKS 


The only natural drink is water. 

The ideal drink furnished by nature is rain water that has 
fallen into sandy earth, and there been filtered. Rain water 
is the distillation of the ordinary waters on the earth. Only 
the pure parts are made into rain; just as man distills water, 
and then filters it through sand; but man-made distillation is 
not aerated, or mixed with enough air after being distilled; and 
the sand is not of sufficient bulk to give full balance of water. 
Yet man has it in his power to accomplish these imitations of 
nature. 




Nature’s Doctors 99 

On the other hand, the usual DRINKS of humanity are as 
follows: 

1. Coffee. 

2. Tea. 

3. Chocolate. 

4. Cocoa. 

5. Bran Lemonade. 

6. Malted Milk. 

7. Buttermilk. 

Rule 57 .—Any drinks that contain alcohol prevent the food 
from making normal tissue. 

TEA is a direct poison. It is wholly foreign to the human 
body. It weakens every organ, and acts directly on the bladder, 
making it very difficult to retain the water there. Iced Tea, as 
the Chief Chemist of the United States Government stated, is 
‘‘slow suicide/’ Tea drinking undermines the brain forces, 
ruins the memory, causes loss of faculties long before age has 
come on, and makes a person desperately nervous, and subject 
to gloomy moods by night and day. Its end is paralysis. 

Rule 58 .—Malted Milk is a food of high value, made from con¬ 
densed milk and barley malt. 

COFFEE is not a food drink, but a pleasing stimulant, free 
from injury to persons whose hearts are strong, but dangerous 
to weak hearts. It contains a poison that is not brought into it 
until it has boiled for some minutes. To avoid this poison, the 
more experienced people make drip coffee by which the hot 
water drips through the ground berry. Then the percolating 
system is used as the next step between drip and boiled coffee. 
But where the coffee is allowed to boil for several minutes, the 
poison in it is set free and then the trouble begins. It stops 
digestion for an hour or more, adds to the danger of carbon 
poison, and does general harm to all the organs. 

SOME WOMEN keep the coffee pot on the stove and add 
water to the grounds from time to time, drinking from this 
wicked brew, and their husbands pay the doctors ’ bills. 

SOME WOMEN are so ignorant that they even allow the tea¬ 
pot to stand on the stove all day long, adding water as needed, 
and sipping from the awful brew. If a million dollars were 
offered for a well woman who thus displayed this degree of 


100 


Complete Life Building 

ignorance unparalleled in modern times, they could not find one. 
Medicine bottles fill the back yard, and pill-boxes pile up in the 
house. In the first place, water that has been boiled for some 
time is a poison and the surest cause of old age. In the second 
place, tea and coffee are in themselves poisons, the only escape 
being in the quick cooking of coffee and the discarding of the 
grounds at once . In the third place, there are no saving merits 
to tea; it is bad first, last and always. Coffee is good in its early 
boiling only; after that it is one of the worst enemies of the 
health. 

The other drinks have been discussed in the earlier pages of 
this book. Bran Lemonade is a brain-refresher and nerve- 
builder, and may be flavored by grape juice, currant juice, 
peach juice, or blackberry juice, always to the advantage of the 
health and blood. Buttermilk is a direct tissue-builder of the 
highest possible value. As all foods turn to liquid in the stom¬ 
ach, it does not matter whether they are solid or not when eaten. 

WATER is the typical drink to relieve thirst, and there is 
nothing that will perform this duty so effectively as water. As 
it does not contain food for the stomach to act upon, it is not 
affected by the rules of eating. It used to be believed that 
water-drinking during a meal was bad; it is bad only when it 
takes the place of saliva, as when food is washed into the stomach 
by any liquid. This is so vicious a habit that it seems strange 
that it should still survive. It is perfectly proper and good 
for digestion to drink slowly ‘between swallows, if the mouth 
is entirely empty. Drinking before a meal, and after a meal, is 
also helpful. The very best time is to drink freely before eating. 

Water should be free from mineral matter, as this brings on 
the disease known as old age. Spring water is filtered rain 
water, and rain water is aerated distilled water. Here we find 
the ideal drinking water for health and long life. 

When there are present together in the stomach foods that 
belong to different digestive-time classes, that food which is 
most easily digested will receive the whole attention of the stom¬ 
ach; and, at the same time, the other food will undergo ferment 
which takes place very rapidly in the body under the conditions 
named. This ferment gives rise to the violent poison. 

As more than half of all the ills of life come from the uneven 
digestibility of foods in the stomach, it is very important that 


Nature’s Doctors 


101 


humanity should at once begin the study of the remedy. The 
cause is known. The prevention of this cause is better than 
the cure, for the cure often is too late in reaching the victim. 

The Five-Minute Class.—This includes foods that slip through 
the membranes of the mouth, throat and stomach, and enter at 
once, or almost at once, into the river of blood that courses 
through the body. The Five Minute Foods are Raw White of 
Eggs, Raw Yolk of Egg, Beef Juice, Clear Soup, Butter, Sugar 
and Honey. 

Rule 59 .—Foods of the Five Minute Class should not be eaten 
separately where they are intended to be combined with other 
foods. 

If the white of a raw egg is to be eaten, it is far better that it 
be taken by itself on an empty stomach; and the same is true 
of the raw yolk. Beef juice and clear soup are much better 
alone than with any other food. 

Butter, sugar and honey are intended to be used in combina¬ 
tion with other foods, and for this reason should not be eaten 
alone. 

Rule 60 .—Food classes that are close to each other in time of 
digesting blend together in a healthy stomach. 

Nature allows an hour of grace so that foods will not set up 
poisons in the system on slight provocation. In exceedingly 
strong stomachs her allowance is even more liberal. The forma¬ 
tion of gas, or the rolling sound, or a blind pain in the region of 
the stomach, will indicate the fact if there is danger from the 
formation of poison. There should never be gas, or “wind” in 
the body; and never an eructation at the throat, nor a sound of 
rumbling thunder subdued, in the bowels. 

Some of the established results are given here as the climax of 
many years of experiments along this line. 

1. If the white of egg, or the yolk, is not relished alone when 
raw, it may ally itself to a number of foods in the ONE HOUR 
CLASS, milk being the most natural, as it is composed of ex¬ 
actly the same elements as the raw egg. 

2. Beef Juice is better when taken alone, but it may be united 
with any of the ONE HOUR CLASS of foods that can well be 
eaten with it; bread being the most suitable of that class. 

3. There are many foods of the ONE HOUR CLASS that can 


102 Complete Life Building 

be eaten with butter; and some that are good with sugar, or 
honey. 

4. All the foods that are contained in the FIVE MINUTE 
CLASS and the ONE HOUR CLASS should always be kept in 
mind; they really constitute the ONE HOUR CLASS, as that 
embraces everything that is digested in one hour or less. 

It must be remembered that foods that are easily digested in 
the stomach are still undergoing a secondary and even third and 
fourth forms of digestion all the way along the tract of the 
digestive canal, of which the stomach is merely a part. Meats 
eaten after the middle of the day are sure to tax the system of 
a nervous person; and it is always the nervous person who loses 
sleep at night. 

Buie 61 .—The character of a meal should be determined by 
the use to be made of it. 

This rule means that you should eat for a purpose. If there 
is to be a hard day’s work of mind or muscles, there should be 
fuel in the stomach BEFORE the work is to be done, not after¬ 
wards. Therefore this class of eaters should get a good break¬ 
fast. If you cannot find an appetite for breakfast, it is due to 
the fact that your system is still struggling with an incautious 
or too heavy supper of the evening before. Omit one evening 
meal, and note how quickly your breakfast appetite will come 
to you, how speedily your morning headaches will disappear, 
and how soon that bad taste in the mouth vanishes. The person 
who says he has no appetite in the morning is like the boy whose 
hunger utterly failed him after his Christmas dinner; he was 
already over-loaded. Many persons get up in the morning with 
their bodies clogged with the food of the heavy eating of the 
preceding evening. 

People who are thin, or cold, or who have poor blood, should 
eat for growth of extra tissue; and this requires a heavy evening 
meal, but not a meal of heavy foods. Bulk counts more in value 
than solidity of matter. You can produce any result you wish, 
by eating in a certain way; and there are many different results 
that different people need. 

Buie 62 .—Foods that require a long time to digest are suited 
to people whose habits require long staying powers in their 
supply of nutrition. 

It has been found that laborers who eat nothing but baked 


Nature’s Doctors 


103 


beans at a meal, either in the morning or at noon, will have 
more endurance and power than if they had eaten foods that 
digest more speedily. Also a meal of nothing but brown bread 
will give the same results. But both these foods, or either of 
them, if eaten by a person of sedentary habits, will result in 
nervousness, for the system does not demand long time foods 
and is burdened in disposing of them. 

Rule 63 .—Persons who wish to rest their nerves and minds, 
and not indulge in hard mental or physical work, should eat 
only the foods of the ONE HOUR CLASS. 

Rule 64 .—Persons who wish quiet nerves and yet who desire 
sustenance for activities, should eat foods of the TWO HOUR 
CLASS. 

Rule 65 .—Foods should be selected in advance of the uses for 
which they are eaten; not after such uses. 

Eat ahead, is the meaning. If you need staying powers for a 
hard day’s work, do not eat the staying foods AFTER the work 
is done. Yet most people do this on the theory that they need 
to repair the damaged system. This is like hitching the horse 
to the back of the wagon. All persons who have given the mat¬ 
ter a thorough test, time after time, and under all conditions 
have come to agree that the food must be taken ahead of the 
use to which it is to be put. If you are to drive a horse on a 
long journey, you will feed him for it before he starts; and if 
on a fast journey, you will give him a larger proportion of oats 
for that purpose. When he has a period of rest before him, he 
is fed for the rest, and not for hard work; or else he would be 
sick. 

Rule 66 .—Persons who seek perfect health should avoid all 
foods of the THIRD HOUR, FOURTH HOUR, FIFTH HOUR, 
and NEVER CLASS. 

This does not mean that all such foods are useless. They 
merely do some degree of harm when eaten by those who wish 
to secure the best health. 

Rule 67 .—If a meal is made up of foods in the TWO HOUR 
CLASS, it should exclude all other foods except those of the 
FIVE MINUTE CLASS. 

The reason for admitting the FIVE MINUTE foods with 
those of the TWO HOUR CLASS is plain; they are so quickly 


104 


Complete Life Building 

digested that they do not hold back the digestion of the other 
foods more than five minutes, and this is not long enough to 
start ferment. It is in this rule of nature that her plans are 
seen at their best. 

It is pleasant to get away from these barbarous combinations 
that have done so much injury to the people as a race as well 
as individuals. 

A simple life would consist of a simple diet to begin with; 
and in it can be found real happiness. The twelve course meal 
is as wicked as anything that can be conceived by human in¬ 
genuity. The fewer the courses at the same meal, the more 
intelligent the mind that creates it. 

Rule 68. —As variety of food is lessened at the same meal, 
health is gained and preserved. 

Rule 69. —Cures that medicines have utterly failed to accom¬ 
plish have been effected by one-food meals. 

This may be called the golden rule of common sense as well 
as of health and longevity. 

Rule 70. —Variety of meals is far better than variety in a 
meal. 

You need not adopt the one-food meals if you do not wish to 
do so; but the greatest geniuses and hardest mental workers of 
the world have often done so; not always. A famous President 
of the United States ate for his midday meal only one food; 
the same every day for many years; and he was robust and vig¬ 
orous. A Pope who lived to be more than ninety in fine health 
ate the same single food for his breakfast for half his life time; 
no variety at that meal, and no variety in his breakfasts. 

Suppose you like a dozen or twenty kinds of food, and wish 
to adopt the one-food meals, you could have only one kind of 
food at each meal, but no two meals need be alike until the 
dozen or twenty different kinds have been used. This is variety 
of meals, but not variety in a meal. 

The result is sure to prove so pleasing to you that you will 
become fascinated by it; and think how much labor can be saved 
the cook by such a method. The writer of this page has for 
over thirty years had nearly all his breakfasts of oatmeal and 
cream only. This is a one-food diet in the meal, and for the 
breakfasts as well; and it has proved the best that could be 
desired. 


Nature’s Doctors 


105 


FACTS ABOUT WHOLE WHEAT 


No subject of food has received more publicity in recent times 
than that of bread from white flour. 

It is a peculiar fact that a theory may be right in itself and 
wrong in its uses. Here are the true aspects of the case in re¬ 
gard to wheat flour: 

1. The whole wheat contains all the needed elements of the 
human body. 

2. These elements are in right proportion for building a per¬ 
fect body. 

3. No other single kind of food is thus endowed. Milk is next 
in value for these qualities, but is of greater importance because 
of other virtues, and yet is not concentrated enough to become 
the sole food of an adult, nor of a young person after infancy. 

4. In addition to all the needed elements, whole wheat con¬ 
tains in its husk a mass of wholly indigestible and dangerous 
material. This is not only injurious to the health but soon de¬ 
stroys the tone of the stomach and intestinal canal. 

BREAD, to be palatable, must be light; that is, porous. 

There has never been made a light loaf of bread from whole 
wheat, nor from wheat which has been deprived of the rough 
husk material. Improve it all you may, still it is impossible to 
produce a porous loaf. 

TOAST is essential to any high grade diet, yet there has never 
been made a palatable slice of toast from whole wheat flour. 

But if whole wheat can be produced that has nothing more 
in its composition than what is useful as food, then these objec¬ 
tions will be at once removed. But in America they have not 
been removed. 

Yet refined flour, white and light, capable of making the ideal 
loaf, is almost nothing but starch. It is the most unbalanced 
food in existence that holds a place of its importance. 

It is the most common cause of constipation. 

Life cannot be prolonged by its use alone for more than a 
few months; and tests upon animals show that death results 
in a few weeks when nothing but white flour products are fed 
to them. While milk is too diluted to be useful as a single 
article of diet, yet a strong man can live for years on nothing 



106 Complete Life Building 

but cow’s milk; but only a few months on white bread. On 
the other hand he can live a lifetime on white bread and bran 
water as a drink, and even gain in health and strength by this 
restoration of the missing parts of whole wheat. 

We have seen that polished rice from which the skin has been 
removed is not only an unbalanced food but is the cause of fatal 
epidemics, which can be wholly and quickly cured by nothing 
more than the restoration of the skin that has been removed in 
the process of polishing. 

But we cannot cure the evils resulting from white flour diet 
by restoring the bran, for the reason that bran contains dan¬ 
gerous and injurious material too harsh for the human system; 
material that is used to scour big horses and other animals when 
a rough laxative is required. 

This difficulty is overcome by the use of bran water. 

Any Ralstonite of fifty years ago, or of any era since then, 
will recall that bran water has been constantly recommended 
as a drink and a food. It is made from any clean bran, by add¬ 
ing water and draining it off through cheese cloth; thereby 
securing the mineral salts of the bran, and keeping out the 
rough portions of this husk. Let it get cold, and add the juice 
of a lemon to a quart of this water; drink slowly during meals, 
or at any time when feeling the need of a stimulant. 

As a mid-meal lunch it is useful if followed by a small piece 
of Ralston Caramel which we have described under the head of 
SUGAR. 

To solve the problem of making a light or porous loaf and 
yet retain the mineral elements of whole wheat, some great 
bakeries have invented a process that uses flour to which have 
been added these elements freed from the bran. If this is done 
honestly, it is accomplished by using the vegetable cell struc¬ 
tures contained in bran that hold the missing parts in actual cell 
growth as they were taken from the wheat grain. But if done 
dishonestly, the lacking elements have been added in the form 
of minerals that have not passed through the growth that builds 
them into cells from the vegetable kingdom; and as such they 
are not good food. 

Bran however is all vegetation, all cell structures ready for 
food, and needs only to have the harsh husk dangers removed, 


Nature’s Doctors 107 

which is done by adding water and draining it through cloth. 

There is another solution of this problem. 

Oatmeal contains a husk or bran surface that is much less 
rough than wheat; by using a fireless cooker and cooking oat¬ 
meal for several hours, it is harmless to all stomachs. But whole 
wheat should cook for twelve hours in a fireless cooker, after 
which it is freed from its danger; the husks having been 
softened and rendered safe to eat. 

Whole wheat pudding is thus made. 

After being cooked all night as we have described, let it be 
dried and toasted in the morning over a hot fire, until it is 
almost solid, which can be done in a double boiler; then eaten 
with sugar and milk, or salt and milk. Experiments show that 
this food known as whole wheat pudding will sustain life and 
strength indefinitely, and help to bring a weak body into vigor 
and power. 

Oatmeal pudding can be made in the same way. 

Oatmeal water has been in use for hundreds of years and is 
made in the manner just described for making bran water. All 
these things are wholesome and health-giving. They supply the 
complete needs of the body. 


FACTS ABOUT POTATOES 


POTATOES, under the plan of living in the Ralston Health 
Club, form the chief article of food; for which reason the new¬ 
est and the oldest facts should be understood. These facts, as 
suggested, are not all new, but some of them are given to the 
public in this book for the first time. There are three varieties 
of claims respecting any food: 

Science. 

Theory. 

Proof. 

Science tells us many things about what we eat, the truth of 
which goes no further than the chemical department, and would 
be valuable if man were an engine of mere mechanism. Thus 
the calories that would run machinery might kill a human being. 
Thus science tells us that wheel grease or soap grease contains 




308 


Complete Life Building 

all the calories and all the vitamines needed to sustain life; but 
science does not tell us these things will not suit the human 
machine. 

Theory is the basis of all the teachings now in vogue regarding 
health from the standpoint of the educated man who does not 
apply his knowledge to life itself. For example, theory tells 
us that iron will make red corpuscles in the blood: and gloats 
with satisfaction when a dose of iron does in fact show an in¬ 
crease in the red blood color; but theory does not stop to ascer¬ 
tain that there is a difference between staining the corpuscles 
red, and making them red in fact. Because of this lack of 
knowledge many persons have lost their lives from tuberculosis 
which follows the taking of iron as medicine. 

PROOF is the application of knowledge to the use of foods 
by trying them as food, and watching the results; not in a few 
thousand cases, nor through a dozen years; but in hundreds of 
thousands of cases through two generations. This method of 
securing proof is the mission and purpose of the Ralston Health 
Club. Not science alone; nor theory alone; but the facts them¬ 
selves. Thus the same calories and vitamines that are contained 
in wagon grease and soap grease, are found in other things that 
are suited to the human body. Thus iron which, as a medicine, 
causes loss of lung vitality, is found in vegetable cells, in organic 
form, not in chemical form, and such organic life will blend 
perfectly with the blood and make new life which strengthens 
the lungs as well as all the body. 

It was the Ralston Health Club that discovered that nothing 
is food that has not been organized in growing life of some kind. 
Even the flesh of animals is composed of organized life. 

By the means of PROOF just described, we have established 
the following facts about POTATOES. 

1. Potatoes are the chief food of humanity in this part of the 
world. 

2. The practice of sterilizing potatoes to prevent them from 
sprouting destroys most of the high food value. 

3. The principal value of the potato is close to and in the skin; 
the next grade of nutrition is that near the skin; yet during the 
war, when the Government was urging people to plant potatoes 
everywhere, cooks were peeling them with thick parings which 
were thrown away, with the result that more than ninety percent 


Nature’s Doctors 


109 


of the food value was wholly lost; and this at a time when semi¬ 
starvation reduced human vitality to such a low ebb that the 
great epidemic slew hundreds of thousands, and ruined for life 
the vitality of millions of others. 

4. A new potato possesses no food value whatever until the 
skin is developed. The test is to try to slide the thumb over the 
skin; if it slips away, the potato is unripe. As acute indiges¬ 
tion and quick death have followed the eating of new potatoes, 
it is wise to adopt this test before buying or using them. Even 
then when too new, it should not be given to young children. 
The best time to dig a potato crop is when the plants have not 
only faded and withered, but have actually crumbled away. 
The potatoes go on growing after the plants seem dead. 

5. So important is the potato as the chief article of food that 
there should be a nation-wide course of instruction in the prac¬ 
tice of keeping them from sprouting without sterilizing them. 
Of course coldstorage will do this safely, but few persons have 
such advantages. But it is possible to keep the right variety 
of potato twelve months without sprouting. 

6. When a potato has sprouted the value has been lost to some 
extent. A waxy potato is useless and dangerous; so is one that 
is wrinkled and withered; these enter into the making of what 
is known as pearl tapioca, which causes disease. The flake or 
coarse tapioca is a very good food. 

7. iWe have for forty years tried and tested every variety of 
potato, and have found but one, the Cobbler, that contains full 
food value when a year old, that remains solid, and holds its 
new potato flavor. By learning how to keep this variety free 
from sprouting, man will have acquired a needed food for his 
body. As new potatoes from the South are in the market three 
months before they are ready in the North, it may require only 
nine months of time to keep the latter crops from sprouting, 
and the problem is simplified to this extent. 

8. There is only one way to cook a potato. BAKE IT. 
Boiled, fried, or mashed potatoes have but little food value. 
This value being in the skin and close to the skin, is nearly all 
lost when not baked; the center of the potato by itself is a poi¬ 
son ; like rice; but, like rice, when combined with the whole sur¬ 
face, is a food of the highest value. Look in the Index at the 
end of this book for RICE, and read all that is said about it. 


110 


Complete Life Building 

9. The baked potato should be cut up into small parts so that 
the skin is mixed thoroughly with the rest; then it should be 
SALTED to taste; but plenty of salt is required in order to 
produce the stomach fluid which is absolutely necessary to di¬ 
gestion. Then cream or whole milk should be poured plentifully 
over the mixture, according to the taste of the person eating it. 
The potato thus prepared is palatable in the highest degree; in 
fact there is no food that holds the same rank with it for the 
pleasure it gives the palate. 

10. Baked potatoes with the underskin, eaten with salt and 
cream or milk, is a complete food; this means that it will sup¬ 
port all the life and all the functions of the body indefinitely, 
bringing health, freedom from disease, freedom from constipa¬ 
tion, the arch enemy of the body, and growth and development 
to all parts of the body. Tests have been made showing this 
one article to be the best mono-diet known; for further informa¬ 
tion as to mono-diet consult the Index for One-Food Meals-. 
Other tests have been made that prove that humanity can live on 
this alone and thrive in perfect health; but we are not suggest¬ 
ing that anyone do this. Nature intends variety, and we must 
find it; but the best variety is composed of perfect foods alone, 
of which the potato in the form stated is one leading example. 

11. A potato that has been exposed to the sun forms a green 
color on the skin, and the whole potato is a poison; it is best 
to throw it away. Also one that has a slight rotten spot on it 
should be wholly discarded. 

12. It is necessary to maintain the daily motion of the intes¬ 
tinal canal; and this is accomplished by having a certain amount 
of bulk in the food that is eaten. This proportion of bulk is 
found in the potato, and in a better form than in any other kind 
of food. 

13. Civilization is that stage in human life where no food is 
eaten that is not a body-builder; and where all the necessary 
kinds of food are eaten to make all parts of the body. Potatoes 
with salt and cream contain all these needed elements with none 
that are useless. 

14. This book has for its mission the furnishing of a moun¬ 
tain of proofs that sickness, old age, decrepitude, and all dis¬ 
comforts, cravings and vicious habits are the result of poisons 
admitted to the body by the use of non-food elements or such 


Nature’s Doctors 


111 


elements as are of no nse in body-building; and one of these 
proofs is found in the exclusive use of baked potatoes with their 
underskins, taken with salt and cream; as an experiment only; 
not for a day, but for ten years with no other food, and no drink 
but pure water. Do not for a moment imagine that we are 
recommending this mono-diet. It was an experiment made by 
a number of people in order to determine whether or not life 
could be maintained on such a diet; made in the interest of 
science, with the result that every one of the experimenters not 
only kept in perfect health of mind and body, but overcame 
every form of disease and threatened organic trouble until they 
were immune. They proved that sickness, premature death, 
ripening of the faculties, and every kind of physical suffering 
were due to the eating of the non-food elements that enter 
largely in the diet of most families everywhere. 

Civilization rises above errors. 

The human race is not civilized while it grovels in errors. 

The gravest of all errors is that which is born of ignorance, 
stupidity and indifference, whereby the system is constantly fed 
things that do not build the body; it is the gravest because the 
long train of sickness and suffering follows in its wake. If the 
world were to overcome half its errors, it would be half civil¬ 
ized. If it were to overcome ninety percent of its errors it would 
be ninety percent civilized. 

In the matter of body building, if humanity were to adopt as 
a food system only those elements that are needed to build the 
body, then the people would be 

ONE HUNDRED PERCENT CIVILIZED. 


FACTS ABOUT MILK 


Much is being preached to-day about the value of milk, most 
of which is taught blindly. Life begins and ends generally on 
this food. No known substitute has been found, and in the 
nature of things it is certain that nothing can, take its place. 

But while milk will support life almost indefinitely, cheese 
will destroy it. Millions of babies have died from drinking milk 
instead of eating it; and having to battle with the cheese lumps 




112 Complete Life Building 

that have been formed in the stomach and intestines, with colic 
as the attendant evil. 

It has always been known that ordinary cheese is indigestible. 

We advocated for some time the use of cottage cheese, as a 
mild compromise between the real article and milk; but tests 
made very recently have proved that even cottage cheese is 
almost useless as food, and that it contains a poison that sets up 
what is known as toxic dangers in the system. Some persons 
of robust health are able to dispose of this mild form; but others 
suffer by its use. In all cases whether eaten by the sick or the 
well, it is not worthy a place in any diet. 

If you take a pail of milk and place rennet in it, you will 
make curd and whey; the former being removed as the basis of 
cheese. Rennet is the stomach of a calf. Your own stomach not 
only is capable of making cheese, but does so in fact whenever 
you drink milk; and you have a ball of indigestible cheese wait¬ 
ing there for something to take place. What takes place de¬ 
pends on the weakness or strength of your heart. If you dis¬ 
pose of this lump the toxic dangers then follow all along the 
intestinal canal. 

Why drink milk? 

Health writers, and all doctors say drink from one to four 
quarts of milk daily. This is wicked advice. Drink none at all. 

EAT milk. 

Do you recall the time when long nippled bottles were handed 
to babies? The opening at the end of the nipple allowed the 
fluid to come out freely. The long nipple sent the milk into 
the throat. The result was for many generations an enormous 
infant death rate. No baby can drink milk and be safe. Colic 
and distress are the fruits of that habit. 

So some inventive mind suggested the practice of eating milk. 
The nipple was given a smaller opening; and its length was re¬ 
duced so that the fluid entered the mouth at the front instead 
of at the throat; and the milk flowed only fast enough to allow 
it to be mixed with the saliva. It had to pass the whole length 
of the mouth, and it was thus thoroughly salivated. The result 
was the prevention of colic if the bottle and milk were clean or 
free from dirt germs. Infantile mortality began to lessen. Was 
it worth while? Here is one illustration of the difference be¬ 
tween drinking and eating milk. 


Nature’s Doctors 


113 


If you sip milk slowly, salivating every mouthful before you 
swallow it, you EAT it. If you dump it into the stomach as a 
mass to be made into cheese, and to set up toxic poisoning and 
intestinal indigestion, you are drinking it. 

A better way to eat milk is to toast old bread until it is dry, 
and break it into small bits; drop these from time to time in 
milk, and take each bit by itself into the mouth, and swallow 
slowly. In this way you can daily devour all the milk that your 
system requires. Added to this practice is the use of milk on 
baked potatoes, rice, wheat pudding, hominy, oatmeal and corn- 
meal; using it in abundance. These are all ideal foods, and 
build a perfect body. 


FACTS ABOUT MEAT 


There are many diverse opinions on the subject of meat eat¬ 
ing. On the one hand we have the advocates for a strictly 
vegetable diet; on the other hand, the use of meat in modera¬ 
tion is recommended. 

For some reason or other nearly all doctors, before they as¬ 
certain what is really the matter with patients, start the treat¬ 
ment by ordering them to stop eating meat; to discard all kinds 
of flesh; and in many cases they are told to eat fish, eggs, milk, 
cream, butter, and cheese. All these are products of the animal 
kingdom. To make oneself a strict vegetarian, it is necessary to 
live like grain and plant-eating animals. 

But such animals are created by nature to digest nothing but 
their kinds of food; while the human body is made for both 
animal and vegetable products; for flesh, fish, fowl and the like. 
In fact the young babe is not given the digestive fluids that can 
dispose of any product of the vegetable kingdom; these would 
kill it in a day. The grains or cereals furnish starch as their 
chief material for the support of life, and yet it is a fact that 
infants are not given the stomach fluids that will act on starch; 
generally they should be a year old before such foods are used. 
Hence the child is dependent on the animal kingdom in order 
to get a foothold on the world. 

Humanity must have existed for thousands of years on the 
animal kingdom before it was possible to till the land to raise 




114 


Complete Life Building 

grains and other forms of food. Fruits and grasses were inci¬ 
dents only, and were useful principally in the tropics, promot¬ 
ing laziness, and yielding no promise of civilization. 

It will never be possible for the race to exist without milk, 
cream and butter; all produced from the beef animals, and to 
some extent from others. There is no fat equal to butter; no 
appeal to the palate equal to cream; no food basis equal to milk. 
These ensure the use of beef animals as long as humanity dwells 
on this globe. 

The crankiest kind of a crank is that person who seeks for 
the sake of being a vegetarian in the fullest sense to avoid all 
products of the animal kingdom. Such a person suffers from 
anemia, no matter what effect it may have on the general ap¬ 
pearance; and anemia is followed or attended by weak heart 
action, fainting, spells of semi-consciousness, loss of sleep, and 
finally by mental breakdown and unfitness for life generally. 
In the meantime all that portion of the human body that is 
built by nature for the digestion of animal products is left to 
idleness which means atrophy. 

The next class of vegetarians includes people who are willing 
to eat certain things if they are not asked to eat flesh. They 
take eggs, milk, cream, butter, cheese and fish; but avoid the 
fibre of meat. If they can maintain a balanced food they are 
able to keep in health. But to too many persons eggs are poison¬ 
ous; this fact can be ascertained by a blood test which any doc¬ 
tor can make. Other persons drink milk and so suffer from 
cheese balls in the stomach, and from toxic poisoning. Others 
eat cheese itself, and continue to suffer from indigestion and 
toxic troubles, as well as intestinal difficulties. Fish rarely is a 
substitute for meat, and is always an unbalanced food, the near¬ 
est useful kind being red salmon. 

There is no vegetable oil that can take the place of butter 
from milk; and most of these vegetable substitutes are poisons, 
like cotton seed butter. Even olive oil when pure, which is al¬ 
most never in this country, sets up serious disturbances with 
people who are not bom to its use. 

But what we understand as meat is the flesh or fibre, or tissue, 
of the animal. Beef and mutton are the only two real meats 
that are suited to human life, and that are free from the gen¬ 
eral objections of animal foods. All products from swine are 


Nature’s Doctors 


115 


direct poisons. Poultry, birds, and fowl generally, even if com¬ 
ing from clean feeding which is rare, have less food value than 
common white bread. Their fats and mineral salts are their 
chief qualities. 

The only real meats, therefore, are mutton and beef. 

Lamb is too young to have developed true food value; and 
the same is true of veal. The wool, skins and meat of sheep all 
combine to make it a highly valuable animal. 

Beef produces the much needed hides, and has a value therein 
that cannot be denied. From beef animals come butter, cream 
and the ever needed milk. These two classes of animals must 
always serve ther race until the world shall be worn out. Mutton 
should not be cooked until all its juices are burned up; but is 
not best rare-; while all beef should be cooked and eaten rare. 
Otherwise both kinds of meat will give only the fibre or tissue 
as food, and this is not highly valuable. 

Many kinds of fish are useful; the red salmon being the best 
body builder; and the tuna fish having no food value at all, as 
it is only doctored fibre. 

Poultry meat is the result of filthy feeding as often as of clean 
eating; as hens are natural scavengers, preferring bugs, insects 
and offal when left to their choice-; and their flesh is not whole¬ 
some for the human race, when so fed. 

Tumors, boils, carbuncles and abscesses all have their origin 
in the eating of flesh of b’ird, poultry or animal other than sheep 
or beef; the basis of such maladies being the soil from flesh in 
which the specific germs of the disease find lodgment. Thus 
boils come from outside germs on the skin that meet the soil 
from eating swine meat; such germs generally, in the first boil, 
being rubbed under the skin by the clothing. Inherited blood 
taint may be the basis of abscesses. 


FACTS ABOUT SUGAR 


Cane sugar is intended by nature to become a food for 
humanity. 

This is not true of beet sugar, nor of maple sugar, both of 
which are irritants to the stomach. 

Unrefined or brown sugar of the cane is not only a food, being 




116 


Complete Life Building 

rich in carbon, but also contains a considerable amount of other 
matter that helps build the body; besides which it is a laxative; 
while white sugar is constipating, and therefore injurious. 

Why man ever came to refine sugar and remove from it its 
chief value is hard to determine. We know that he had good 
reason for refining the flour of wheat, as the whole flour will 
not make bread that is palatable, nor produce a light loaf. But 
when he took from brown sugar the material that gives it the 
brown color, he also took away its delicious flavor, its great food 
value, and its medicinal qualities. 

Brown sugar is the dried out portion of molasses; and every 
doctor knows* that molasses* makes the most wholesome candy, 
and is the most natural of all laxatives. White sugar does not 
make a healthful candy, and its relation to the unrefined kind 
may be seen by the fact that it quickly constipates the bowels. 
If it does this there is some deficiency in its make-up, which is 
absent in brown sugar. 

Sugar and molasses are force-producers; one ounce of sugar 
gives more energy than a pound of beef. If you add a little 
sugar to an ordinary meal, you increase the force making power 
of that meal thirty percent. Some persons believe in eating 
sugar on rice, wheat pudding, oatmeal, hominy and cornmeal; 
but we prefer salt on these; and sugar in the form of candy 
after a meal; and for the following reason: 

It has been proved many times that the presence of food in 
the stomach will not of itself attract the gastric juice and thus 
begin digestion; but that when there is food in the stomach if 
something is in the mouth that pleases the palate, the gastric 
juice will be drawn at once into the stomach, and digestion will 
be increased in proportion to the pleasure given by what is in 
the mouth. This is why mints and candy are used to follow a 
banquet or formal dinner; or salted almonds are given as the 
final attraction. 

Following this great law of nature it is an act of wisdom as 
well as of health to place a piece of candy in the mouth after 
rising from the table; a piece that will remain there for a min¬ 
ute or more, the longer the better. This brings us to the new 
recipe for making Ralston Caramels. We append this recipe 
because there are few or no pure candies on the market. Sub¬ 
stitutes are numerous, to say nothing of many adulterations. 


Nature’s Doctors 


117 


SACCHARIN.—This is a dreg from coal tar; it is white and 
has a sweetness 300 times greater than that of white sugar. 
Doctors and food experts say it is not a poison; hut admit that 
its continued use will eat away the lining of the stomach, which 
will heal and be well again if this coal tar product be withdrawn 
for a few months ; and providing that no other irritant in the 
meanwhile shall enter the stomach. Owing to its intense sweet¬ 
ness and its low price, it is used in adulterating almost all soda 
water fruit syrups; almost all ice cream; practically all store 
candies; much cake from bakeries; juices of canned fruits; and 
other things that enter the human stomach. Better discard all 
these things. Buy sugar and molasses, and make your own. 

RALSTON CARAMELS 

Get a very large kettle, a very long spoon, and also a smaller 
kettle, the latter about six quarts in size. Also five or six low 
pans, of tin. 

In the big kettle, which should hold easily the following con¬ 
tents, and not be more than one-fourth full, place: 

One quart of molasses, dark or light. 

One quart of sweet milk, that is new milk. 

Six pounds of brown sugar. 

Put over a very hot fire and stir all the time. 

When it begins to boil add one half pound of butter. 

When it has boiled ten minutes, add one pound of pure 
chocolate. 

When it has boiled five minutes more, add one-fourth pint of 
peanut butter. This is not a good food but has its uses as a 
flavoring agency. 

Cook till it is done. Have the pans ready to pour the candy 
in. 

Learn when to take it off; if it is removed too soon, it will be 
sticky and interfere with conversation if a room full of guests 
try to eat it at the same time. It is very easy to determine 
when it is ready. If it gets too well done it will have a burnt 
and smoky taste, and not chew like gum. The smaller kettle 
should be filled two-thirds full of water as cold as you have, 
with a lump of ice added if you can find it. 

When the candy begins to thicken and not rise in the kettle, 


118 Complete Life Building 

dip out a small portion in the large spoon; let it drop at once 
in the cold water to see if it will crackle when pressed by the 
fingers into a thin mass under the water. Keep doing this until 
the thin edges are brittle and break in trying to bend them. 
Now pour in the tin pans and place anywhere to cool. If the 
caramel is a success it will be easily broken by a hammer and 
yet will have the finest chewing qualities. 

The advantages of this food as a digestive influence after a 
meal are as follows: 

It will cause a strong flow of gastric juice to the stomach. 

It will aid digestion. 

The milk will yield its mineral salts to the uses of the body. 

The sugar and molasses will prove a mild and natural laxa¬ 
tive and thus overcome the tendency to constipation, the great 
poison enemy of life. 

The sugar, butter and chocolate will give fuel force to the 
body. 

When this caramel is cooling it can be cut into small squares, 
and wrapped, each piece separately, in wax paper; and in this 
way it can be carried with you. 

Many persons have a headache between meals; one square of 
this caramel will, if held in the mouth and not chewed, stop 
such headache by supplying the needed stimulant to the blood. 

GLUCOSE is another substitute for sugar and is much used 
in the making of candies. It has almost no sweetness, and is 
not assimilated by the blood, but passes through the body un¬ 
changed. It taxes the kidneys and has been the cause of 
Bright’s Disease by being used in beer, canned goods, syrups 
and confectionery. Millions of pounds are devoured every year 
by the people of this country in the above articles. It is made 
from the juice of the cornstalk, and, like many so-called com 
products, has none of the corn grain in it. 

Owing to the destructive character of the gastric juice it is 
wrong to eat candy on an empty stomach; for this excites the 
flow of the juice when there is nothing in the stomach on which 
it can act. Always eat candy after a meal when it can aid di¬ 
gestion; or hold a piece in the mouth to melt there and be ab¬ 
sorbed by the throat glands into the circulation without chewing, 
as the latter action sets in motion the flow of gastric juice. 
Tobacco should never be chewed on an empty stomach for the 


Nature’s Doctors 


119 


same reason, and for others also; nor on any other kind of a 
stomach. Gum chewing on an empty stomach is one of the pro¬ 
lific causes of what is known as dry stomach; it uses up the 
gastric juice when it is not needed and leaves none when it is 
demanded. Following a meal it aids digestion if the chewer 
does not view herself in the mirror while manipulating the face 
muscles. 


YALUE OF ICE WATER 


By countless tests and experiments among hundreds of thou¬ 
sands of people, certain facts have been proved, some of which 
revolutionize the popular belief in many things. We will men¬ 
tion some of them: 

1. HOT WATER does injury to the mouth, the food passage, 
the palate, and the stomach. Yet for a generation or more, the 
people have been told to drink hot water. They like their 
drinks very hot; but it is easily proved that any hot fluid does 
harm to the tissues. 

2. When a person is suffering from unusual cold and is chilled, 
there is then an excuse for giving him something hot to drink; 
but in normal cases it is much better to avoid a hot fluid, by 
which we mean one that is on the verge of scalding. What is 
known as a hot drink is generally one that is very warm; and 
this is beneficial. 

3. When you are very thirsty the saliva in the back of your 
mouth is thick, ropy and sticky. A hot drink will not cut this 
and dissolve it unless it is hot enough to scald, in which case 
it is decidedly harmful. 

4. But ice cold water taken in sips against this sticky mass, 
quickly sets it free. More than this it invites a healthy saliva 
which has been absent or dried up. On the other hand hot 
drinks keep all saliva from entering the mouth. 

5. No sensation of relief can be greater than that which fol¬ 
lows the sipping of ice water under the conditions above stated. 

6. Animals, especially cats and dogs, often have this ropy, 
sticky, thick mass at the back of the mouth. Warm water, or 
even cool water, will not cut it out; hence they are especially 
grateful for a small quantity of ice cold water. 




120 Complete Life Building 

7. Many years ago a baby was crying daily, and could not be 
quieted. It kept up the crying for hours at a time. It had no 
physical trouble, as a very thorough examination proved. A 
doctor, following the teachings of his profession, was about to 
administer an opiate, which meant unnatural sleep. By acci¬ 
dent we learned of the case and examined the baby’s mouth. 
At the back of the tongue was this sticky, thick, ropy mucus in 
a dry state. It could not do otherwise than cause a distressing 
discomfort to the infant. We gave it ice water on the tip of 
a spoon; not enough to enter the stomach, but sufficient to reach 
the back of the mouth. The relief was instant. Ever after, 
when the baby cried, ice water was given it; and it grew into 
a patient, wholesome child, much the better for its ice cold 
drink. It was six months old when it had its first ice water. 
It soon learned to ask for it instead of being put to the incon¬ 
venience of actually crying. This fact was published far and 
wide, and we have the pleasure of knowing that countless thou¬ 
sands have benefited by it. 

8. It has been discovered that this thick, ropy, sticky mucus 
of dried saliva at the back of the mouth is a dangerous soil for 
disease. The new practice of cutting out the tonsils to get rid 
of mucus poisons can be avoided in many instances by the use 
of ice water sipped after meals, or at any time of the day or 
night. This does not mean to pour a flood of chilled water into 
the stomach. Sip enough to reach the back of the mouth. 

9. Yet, speaking of the stomach, it was learned some time 
ago that ice water drank in small quantities, not sipped merely, 
will cure severe cases of indigestion. This is accounted for on 
two grounds: First, it has been found that what pleases the 
saliva sends gastric juice into the stomach through the walls of 
the latter organ, which are porous. Sipping and drinking ice 
water after a meal, thus helps digestion. But a stranger law 
comes into play. Peculiar as it seems, the presence of ice water 
in the mouth, draws healthful saliva there; and in the stomach, 
it arouses the action or churning motion of that organ, which 
is stagnated during indigestion. 

10. The saliva is controlled by very sensitive nerves that run 
to the stomach. What pleases the palate where the saliva 
gathers, will always arouse the flow of gastric juice into the 
stomach. When the palate is gratified, it sends by its nerves 


Nature’s Doctors 


121 


a thrill of gratification to the stomach; but it also brings into 
the palate a new flow of saliva. For this reason ice water 
causes the saliva to come to the mouth, while hot water or even 
warm or cool water will drive it away. 

11. It is a well-known law that food in the mouth must be 
mixed with saliva before it can be digested in the stomach; for 
which reason it is harmful to wash down food with any liquid. 
Any liquid not ice cold will drive away the saliva. On the 
other hand it has been proved many times by long continued 
experiments that if a person will take a mouthful of food and 
retain it in the mouth long enough to mix it with saliva, then 
swallow it, and before the next mouthful, take a sip of ice 
water, both mastication and digestion will proceed to the best 
advantage. 


FACTS ABOUT SALT 


One of the most dangerous foes of health is the man who tells 
you that a certain person did so and so and always had perfect 
freedom from sickness. Now and then we hear a man say that 
his grandmother had never touched salt and lived to be a hun¬ 
dred in consequence. 

It is true that some persons advocate the omission of salt 
from the daily food; citing the fact that a certain tribe never 
ate salt and were quite all right. But investigation shows that 
the tribe lived on meat obtained from hunting; and all meat 
holds an abundance of salt. 

Then when salt is mentioned, the kind in mind is always what 
is known as common or table salt; not one person in a thousand 
knows that there are many kinds of salt besides that which is 
seen on the table. Here are some of them, and they are found 
in many of the foods that are eaten daily: 

Chloride of sodium. 

Chloride of potassium. 

Carbonate of soda. 

Carbonate of potassium. 

Carbonate of magnesium. 

Sulphate of sodium. 




122 


Complete Life Building 

Sulphate of potassium. 

Sulphate of magnesium. 

Phosphate of sodium. 

Phosphate of potassium. 

Phosphate of magnesium. 

Phosphate of calcium. 

Salts of iron. 

Salts of organic acids. 

These salts serve a variety of purposes and without them life 
would be impossible. The composition of the blood depends on 
them. They prevent the disorganization and decay of the tis¬ 
sues. They enter into the structure of parts of the body. 

When taken in excess they do injury, such as causing irrita¬ 
tion of the stomach and membranes, breaking up the blood struc¬ 
ture, leading to skin troubles and dyspepsia. Lime salts and 
phosphates when taken in water or food in large quantities 
tend to cause the deposit of gallstones and calculi, especially 
stones in the bladder. 

Some of the common salts can be omitted continually with¬ 
out danger if the others are supplied in reasonable abundance; 
but the omission of most of the salts will ruin the health of 
man or animal and bring death in a short time; or if the salt 
starvation, as it is called, is not complete, the health will be af¬ 
fected, appetite will fail, food cannot be digested, the muscles 
will become flabby, the mind stupid and dull, the skin dry and 
abnormal in its structure, and the hair will be very thin. In 
animals salt starvation ends in death in about six weeks. 

Children whose daily food contains less salt than is required, 
will have bone deformities, known as rhachitis, or rickets. 

COMMON SALT, known as chloride of sodium, or sodium 
chloride, is by far the most valuable of the salts. For many 
centuries it has been venerated and worshipped in the East, 
and has been a symbol of wisdom and hospitality. Homer called 
it “divine.” It is the chief salt in the formation of the blood, 
and enters in the making of all the tissues and secretions of the 
body. It is needed in the formation of the gastric juice with¬ 
out which digestion could not take place. It stimulates the 
action of the kidneys and tends to keep them in health. By 
creating some thirst it attracts the use of water as a drink, and 


Nature’s Doctors 123 

this is required in order that the blood may flow freely and 
the heart do its work. 

By furnishing the chlorine for hydrochloric acid, it renders 
the most important aid to digestion; but in addition it stimu¬ 
lates the flow of this secretion into the stomach, which explains 
why salted water taken after the stomach is full and stagnant 
will set in motion the process of digestion. Also it makes use¬ 
ful the eating of salted nuts after a full meal. 

It has been proved over and over again in countless tests that 
the absence of salt from the diet completely stops the production 
of gastric juice in the stomach, leading to dry stomach from 
which acute indigestion may quickly follow. 

The only three cases we have heard of where salt has been 
omitted in the diet, have proved to be cases of persons who eat 
heavily of meat, especially beef and mutton which are rich in 
salts; or milk which also contains this necessary article. 

A person who omitted salt from his food and ate neither 
meat nor milk would die in a few weeks. The same fact holds 
true with animals; those that feed on flesh do not require 
salt; those who feed on grass must have it added to their food 
in order to secure health and growth. 

The craving for salt is instinctive among men as well as 
among animals who do not feed on meat. Stanley in his “Dark¬ 
est Africa ” records the fact that the non-meat-eating savages 
travel many hundreds of miles under great difficulties to obtain 
even a small supply of common salt, or sodium chloride, the 
kind we see on the table. 

The rule for using common salt should be this: Flavor food 
to taste, not over-doing it, but taking enough to satisfy the 
palate, and so take it at each meal. If slightly too much is eaten, 
the kidneys will throw off the excess. 

That we are always on the borderland of fatal danger is seen 
from an examination of 

THE POISON SIDE OF COMMON SALT 

As has been stated this is composed of two elements: Sodium 
and Chlorine. 

Sodium is a lustrous, grayish white metal. It is a violent 
poison. When water touches it, the action is violent and ex- 


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tremely severe. In experiments students are warned to handle 
it only with forceps, and never with the fingers; and, to avoid 
contact with water, to carry it in bottles with kerosene oil. 

The other element of common table salt is Chlorine; which 
furnishes the spark of life, aided by calcium, and is necessary 
to the action of the heart, brain, nervous system and organs. 
Chlorine is a gas of a light yellow color, of suffocating odor. 
It is by itself very poisonous, and quickly kills all kinds of 
life. 

When salt is taken with the food it separates in the blood, 
and its Chlorine is mixed with the chief water element, hydro¬ 
gen, thus maintaining safety in life by the wise caution of 
nature. 


FACTS ABOUT FRUIT, 


The knowledge of the uses and value of fruit has been revolu¬ 
tionized in late years; and what was considered as wisdom in 
this line a short time ago is now regarded as contrary to the 
truth. Too much dependence was placed on theory. For in¬ 
stance the old adage that fruit in the morning was golden, at 
noon was silver, and at night was lead, has been discarded. 
What we know now has come about by the use of experiments, 
not one or a few, nor those made in isolated parts of the land, 
but general, widely tried tests of what fruit really does to the 
human body. 

For a clear understanding of the subject, let us first make 
two classes of fruits: 

1. The food class. 

2. The juice class. 

In the Food Class we find the following: 

1. Best of all: DATES. 

2. Next best: RAISIN,S. 

3. FIGS. 

4. Skins of SWEET GRAPES. 

5. Skins of baked, ripe sweet apples. 

6. Bananas. These are really vegetables, but are generally 
called fruit. 

In the Juice Class we have the following: 




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125 


7. Oranges when fully ripe and sweet. 

8. The royal juice of grapes. 

9. The royal flesh of apples fully ripe. 

10. Peaches. 

11. Plums. 

12. Pears. 

13. Cherries when fully ripe and sweet. 

14. Raspberries. 

15. Blackberries. 

WHEN AND HOW TO EAT FRUIT 

DATES.—These are almost life supporting. After a meal, 
and as soon as possible, they should be eaten by putting one in 
the mouth, allowing the stone to come free and be discarded, 
then leaving the flesh of the date to melt in the mouth. The 
longer it remains there, the better it is for the digestion of the 
food in the stomach, on the principle that digestion is not car¬ 
ried on principally by the stimulating action of the food in the 
stomach, but because of the pleasure afforded the palate at the 
mouth. 

In the middle of the forenoon if you feel depressed, eat a few 
dates in the following manner; eat slowly all you desire except 
one, and allow that one to melt in the mouth in the manner 
stated. But do not take dates too near to the time of the noon 
meal, as you may weaken your appetite. 

In the middle of the afternoon if again you feel depressed 
physically, take dates in the manner already described for the 
forenoon. 

As no person should go to sleep at night on an empty stomach, 
unless the evening meal has been taken too close to the time of 
retiring, it is wise to take three or four dates just as you get 
into bed; eating all but one and allowing the last one to remain 
in the mouth to melt away. This is one of the best cures for 
sleeplessness unless too heavy an evening meal has been eaten. 

RAISINS.—These are almost a perfect food; not quite as val¬ 
uable as dates; and not so useful for the special periods of eating. 

Try always to secure the seeded raisins; never the seedless 
kinds. Also avoid sultanas and currants, both of which are 
valueless as food. 


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Raisins when allowed to melt in the mouth after a meal will 
help digestion. If taken on an empty stomach it is well to see 
that they are cleaned, as they are not as free from dirt as a rule 
as dates. 

FIGS.—These should be eaten skins and all, and in the same 
manner as dates; but should be chewed as long as possible and 
into fine bits. 

GRAPES.—The native grape of our country is rich in iron 
and in food minerals if used as food. A grape has four parts: 
the skin; the royal juice which is found close under the skin; 
the pulp; and the seeds. 

It is the skin that contains the iron and other values. This 
can be eaten at any time of the day or night, but must be 
chewed into a very fine mass. It is of great value when made 
into a preserve or grape butter, to be used in winter or other 
times. It is a mistake to discard the skin when eating fresh 
grapes. 

The royal juice is the free fluid that is under skin that flows 
away when the skin is broken. For centuries in Europe what 
is known as royal wine has been made from this free juice, 
obtained by allowing the weight of a mass of grapes to force 
it out without pressing. The wine so made was saved for royalty 
and noble families; and the juice of the pulp was made into 
wine for sale and export. With the skins and the royal juice 
we have all that is fit for the human stomach as far as the 
grape is concerned. We come now to the unfit parts. 

The pulp of the grape is a poison, but of very slight danger. 
In the raisin this poison is neutralized by the process of drying, 
especially the artificial method of dipping them in boiling lye 
of wood ashes and quick lime. People who eat fresh grapes 
swallow this pulp, with the seeds, and eject the skins; thus 
reversing the intended uses of nature. The pulp should never 
be swallowed, nor used to make jelly or preserves; it serves to 
produce wine of the sour kind. Grape juice is unfit to use when 
the pulp is employed as part of its supply. You may say this 
is a waste of much of the grape; yet it is not very much; and 
what has been good for royalty for centuries is none too good 
for the people of to-day. 

APPLES.—Like the grape the apple has its iron and mineral 
producing part, its royal part, and its poison part. 


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127 


Many persons eat the skin of an apple. It is all right to do 
this, but the better way is to secure sweet and fully ripe apples; 
bake them in the usual manner; and eat the skin with cream 
or rich milk, including the royal flesh. Here you secure the 
iron and mineral values. 

There is a super-flavored portion of a really ripe apple which 
lies close to the skin. It is about a half inch to an inch in 
thickness depending on the size of the apple. You can find it 
by studying and tasting the apple itself. Chew the skin to a 
very fine mass in the mouth, including the royal flesh which 
we have just described. 

When you have eaten further into the apple, you will note 
a decided change in the flavor and the character of the fruit. 
It suddenly becomes more acid; this part and the section sur¬ 
rounding the core are a poison. 

For many years the medical conventions have discussed the 
apple, and have reported their many experiences among their 
patients; about half of the doctors declaring that their patients 
are poisoned by apples, and the other half that they are bene¬ 
fited by them. But where only the skin and the royal flesh 
have been eaten, the results have been uniform; only benefit 
has ensued. But the apple must be ripe and mellow. If ripe 
and not mellow, cooking will not produce the food value, for 
cooking only separates the fruit cells into a soft mass; it does 
not cause them to burst open and discharge their contents. 
This point is so important that we advise you to study and 
master it. 

An un-mellowed apple, or the poison part of a mellow one, 
may cause neuritis, neuralgia, rheumatism, heart pains, and 
organic troubles. 

BANANAS.—These vegetable fruit products should be eaten 
only when dead ripe. W 7 hen not fully ripe they have been used 
effectively as a remedy for constipation if taken two hours be¬ 
fore breakfast mornings; but their violence as a purgative is 
dangerous, and we do not advise their use for such purpose. 

It is best to eat bananas as an after-meal dish; and sliced in 
cream or rich milk. Eaten very slowly they assist digestion 
wonderfully. If gulped down they are useless. 

Baked sweet apples should also be eaten like bananas; that 
is after a meal, in cream or rich milk, and very slowly. 


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ORANGES.—This is the first and best of the juice fruits. 

Only fully ripe oranges are valuable; and these should be 
sweet. 

The peel of the orange or the lemon is a poison. 

The custom of using it grated in cooking, or making it a part 
of a marmalade, is the cause of much organic trouble. It is 
true that the English people are very fond of their marmalade; 
but we have never yet seen or heard of a marmalade eater who 
was not a patron of patent medicines, drug stores and doctors. 
Gooseberries are the national hymn of England; and so rheu¬ 
matism is the national malady. It may take that nation an¬ 
other century to learn the fact that they cannot put poisons 
and acids in their blood and get health as the result. They are 
slow to learn because they do not wish to be convinced. 

In the use of oranges a revolution in knowledge has come 
about. 

They were a first course at breakfast or some other meal. 

No fruit should be a first course. 

The only value in an orange is its action on food that is in 
the stomach; and as a first course it leaves the stomach as fast 
as it enters, so that it could not have any value unless it fol¬ 
lowed other eating. Therefore it should be a last course. No 
juice fruit should be eaten on an empty stomach, unless the 
royal juice of a grape be so considered. In eating an orange, 
first discard the peel, and separate the sections; cut these in 
parts, and thoroughly chew each part, swallowing them when 
made into a fine mass. 

GRAPES.—We have already discussed this fruit. No matter 
for what purpose you use grapes, always discard the pulp and 
the seeds. 

APPLES.—Like grapes we have referred to the royal part; 
and need here only say that whatever use you make of grapes, 
always discard the core and the flesh between the core and that 
known as the royal flesh. You may say this is a waste; but it 
really is a money saver. It costs more to rid the body of its 
poisons than it does to throw them away in the first place. 

PEACHES.—These are good food either raw or cooked in 
any way, and especially when preserved. But the skins are not 
useful except in jelly. They should never be eaten on an empty 
stomach; and only following a meal. 


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129 


PLUMS.—These have but slight value; they are very acid at 
their best. Prunes are kinds of plums, and have only slight 
food value. 

PEARS.—These should never be eaten except after a meal. 
They move the kidneys, sometimes too violently; for which pur¬ 
pose they have served as a natural diuretic. They have this 
medicinal value. 

CHERRIES.—If sweet and fully ripe and eaten after a meal, 
they serve as valuable food. 

Raspberries and cream with sugar, or blackberries in like 
manner, are very valuable if taken at the end of a meal. They 
make also useful preserves; it is best to keep them as near as 
possible to their natural state when putting them up for the 
winter; for which reason the jam and the jelly are not as good 
as the preserves. 

Grapefruit has no food value; and does great harm in time 
to the liver. 

Lemons likewise have no value except where the liver is in¬ 
active; in which case they should be eaten undiluted one hour 
before breakfast, followed by about an hour’s active walking 
in the open air, as briskly as possible. One lemon each morn¬ 
ing and the walk as stated will cure inactive liver in seven 
days. But this is not for the food value of the lemon. If a 
person were to adopt only the TRUE FOODS, there would be 
no need for the lemon. The walk is always a blessing. 

It is an old saying that what is good for one person is not 
always good for another. 

It will be noticed before this book is ended that this saying 
applies only to poisons; and never to the TRUE FOODS. 

Then we come to the fact that what may be a true food, 
may also become a poison if slightly varied. Thus polished 
rice is a poison, but whole rice is one of the most valuable of 
the true foods. The same is true of refined corn, or refined 
white flour, of the interior of potatoes alone, and of many 
fruits. 

The vitality of the human body depends on the mutual action 
of two opposing influences; acids and alkalis. Out of every 
hundred persons, ninety are fully charged with acids; and out 
of this ninety, fully fifty are more than fully charged, but in 
varying and differing degrees. Hence arise the basis of the 


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claim that no two persons are alike; and that what is good for 
one may be bad for another. 

If a person has too much acid in his system, the eating of an 
apple even of the royal flesh of the apple, will upset him; the 
first effect being some form of kidney trouble, or neuralgic pain, 
or rheumatism. This is true also of any fruit; and more espe¬ 
cially of tomatoes, cranberries, pie plant, gooseberries, currants, 
and other things whether fruits or not. Acid oranges are very 
bad in such cases. But the most common offender is the apple 
and tomato. 

Tests have been made in thousands of cases with such persons 
and with such things; and it has been proved that rheumatism 
can be made to come or go at will, in small or large degree of 
pain and swelling, in exact proportion to the eating of any one 
of the above articles, and the lesson to be learned is to study 
yourself under the conditions named. 

On the other hand a person whose system does not contain 
too much acid is able to eat tomatoes without injury; or apples, 
pie plant, acid oranges or other things in that line. It all de¬ 
pends on how much natural acid you have in the blood to be¬ 
gin with. But the fact remains that most persons have all the 
acid they can carry safely. 


LARD, NEW BREAD AND PASTRY 


It has been said by one of the wise men of modem times 
that in the art and science of cookery, the three greatest enemies 
of the human health are: 

1. The Frying Pan. 

2. Pastry. 

3. New Bread. 

Some years ago the Chief Chemist of the U. S. Government 
said that in his opinion the three greatest enemies were: 1 , The 
frying pan; 2, Yeast; 3, Pastry. But included in yeast he 
mentioned baking powder. 

NEW BREAD.—While on this subject let us say a word or 
two about the methods employed in raising bread and in mak- 




Nature’s Doctors 


131 


ing cake. Baking powder is used for both bread and cake mak¬ 
ing. Yeast is used chiefly for bread making. 

YEAST.—It is a well known fact that bread made from yeast 
is not as wholesome as that made from pure-food baking pow¬ 
der. All books on feeding pets and other animals where bread 
is eaten, say emphatically never to feed new bread, and espe¬ 
cially when made from yeast. One of the most deadly poisons 
is generated by the yeast in bread dough. It takes days for 
all this yeast poison to pass out of the loaf. Patients who have 
been convalescing from sickness have been killed by being given 
yeast made bread. The practice of eating yeast to cure boils 
may be beneficial on the ground that one poison is cured by 
another poison; but an eighth of a cake is as efficient as a half 
or a whole one, and much less dangerous. But a person who 
eats the TRUE FOODS can never become the victim of a boil, 
carbuncle, tumor, abscess, or cancer. Hence why pay so much 
for so little value as is contained in a yeast cake, the profit on 
which is enormous? 

The best bread is made from what we call pure-food baking 
powder which costs about a cent a pound to make, but which is 
sold for about fifteen cents per pound against the price of forty 
or fifty cents per pound for the impure kinds; thus showing that 
the purest in nature is always the cheapest. 

This pure-food baking powder contains nothing but Starch, 
Bicarbonate of Soda, and Calcium Acid Phosphate: all among 
the most needed of natural food elements; and no other baking 
powder is safe to use. Beware of the word aluminium on the 
cover of a can of baking powder; it is a trick word to conceal 
the word alum, and at the same time to conform to the U. S. 
law to print the names of the ingredients on the package. Alum 
is a very serious poison when it gets into the stomach. 

Bread if home made should be raised with the pure-food bak¬ 
ing powder which is for sale by thousands of stores, and is com¬ 
ing into general use. Then it should be two or three days old 
before it is eaten. But most bread that is made by bakers to¬ 
day is free from the yeast poison, and is fully as good as home 
made bread; especially the kinds on sale by the well known 
chain stores in cities and towns. This too should be two or 
three days old when used. 

Three day old bread made at home or bought at the stores, 


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should be converted into a digestible food by being toasted 
brown, and buttered while hot. If not intended to be eaten 
buttered, omit the latter, and break the bread into toast cubes, 
and cover with cream and sugar to taste. A very small bit of 
sugar will increase the digestibility of the bread, add to the 
flavor, and bring the cream up to the standard required by 
humanity; but may be omitted if not desired. 

The FRYING PAN is an enemy to health for several reasons. 
In the first place all fried surfaces, or those that come in con¬ 
tact with the pan itself, are indigestible; and that which is in¬ 
digestible is not food, nor can it be made into food. In addi¬ 
tion to having no value, it piles up a mass of poisonous debris 
in the system that breeds disease. As an example, some of this 
debris finds its way to the scalp, and destroys the hair; it also 
gets into the skin and injures the complexion; and it weakens 
the value of the blood, thereby doing harm to every organ. 

But the part played by lard in frying food is likewise a 
source of ill health in very great degree. 

LARD is not only made from certain parts of swine meat, 
but can be extracted from almost any part of the lean portions 
of the hog. This means that when you eat lean ham, lean 
pork, or any other part, you are getting some lard into the 
system. Cooking the raw fat develops the lard most readily. 

The gastric juice in the stomach that is essential to all di¬ 
gestion, WILL NOT MIX WITH LARD. 

While fats are required by the body, nature produces them in 
whole milk, also in cream, and also in butter: these fats are 
not only digested easily but they are all the best kinds of food. 
They make the best blood and furnish life energy to the system. 
Next in value in the fats, are those from steer meat, or young 
beef; then beef of any age; then young mutton; and finally old 
mutton; all these are digestible and food producers. 

MINERAL OIL that is recommended by the syndicate articles 
of doctors in the employ of the oil companies, but under the 
guise of helping the sick, will not mix with any fluid of the 
body; but will lower the vitality to the point at times of causing 
severe chills. Heart failure is one of the results of using this 
poison. 

The vegetable oils as a rule, notably cotton seed oil, butter 
from cotton seed oil, lard from the same, are all direct poisons 


Nature’s Doctors 


133 


and harmful, for the main reason that the gastric juice will not 
mingle with them, nor will the blood adopt them. Olive oil 
may he absorbed by a race of people born to its use; but very 
few others are able to use it safely, as it soon deranges the 
whole digestive system. Even when tolerated, it requires hours 
and sometimes days to digest it. 

LARD is both palatable and much relished, as is all pork 
flesh. It enters into many uses in frying, and in pastry. But 
the fact remains that the gastric juice refuses to mix with it, 
and the lard does not at any stage become assimilated into the 
blood; yet the blood carries it along as it does many other 
poisons. Tests made of the perspiration at the pores of the 
skin show that lard is thrown off with the exuding sweat; even 
the odor and grease of the lard can be gathered at the pores, 
showing that it has been carried by the blood without being 
made a part of it. 

The tax on the kidneys is enormous when lard is eaten, or 
when the fat of pork in connection with the lean, is eaten. 

When a person is subject to kidney troubles, it is common to 
note a swelling or puffing under the eyes, especially mornings 
following the use of ham, or pork, the day before. Such per¬ 
sons may on some mornings have a very great fullness under the 
eyes, depending on the amount of ham or pork that was eaten 
the day before. Some persons have doubted this fact; but have 
been induced to make observations on the following basis: if 
they have eaten no product of swine for ten days, the puffiness 
under the eyes will disappear; if they indulge on the eleventh 
day in such food as ham or pork, the puffing of the face under 
the eyes will be seen very distinctly on the following morning. 
Then if they omit this kind of food for a few days there will be 
no swelling under the eyes; but it will return again when pork, 
lard or ham is eaten. By these tests, made many times, it is 
easy to convince doubters. 

Most doctors ascribe Bright’s disease of the kidneys to the 
use of beer or alcohol; but it can be traced to indulgence in 
lard or pork in cases where the victims have never tasted beer 
or alcoholic drinks. 

We have seen that acid fruits and acids of any kind, such as 
vinegar, cranberries, pie plant, gooseberries and other things, if 
eaten by a person whose system is fully acid, or over-acid, will 


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result in rheumatism, neuralgia, pleurisy and similar maladies. 
Let a person whose system is over-acid eat any of the above 
things and in connection with them, eat any product of swine, 
and the result is GOUT. This beautiful combination is most 
frequent in England where the gooseberry is the national flower 
as well as food, and the wonderful ham is the national meat. 
But the kidneys must be given their shock, which is done twenty 
times a day in England by indulgence in beer that often on an 
average. The total result is puffed eyes, foul kidneys, super¬ 
acid blood, and lard deposits in parts of the body where the 
circulation is the least, as at the feet. 

We refer to pork and ham as forms of lard, because they 
contain fat in their lean parts, and all swine fat is capable of 
being made into lard. 

We have also shown that lard does not mingle with the blood 
as a part of it, but is carried by it to the pores of the skin and 
there lodged or deposited waiting to be thrown off or forced off. 
When it is not easily driven from the skin it remains and de¬ 
cays, causing all kinds of skin irruptions, and finally produces 
boils and carbuncles when the specific germ is found to set up 
its colony in the decayed mass. For this reason it is common 
to refer to boils and carbuncles as “lard flowers/’ or “pork 
blossoms / 9 

It is rather a pitiable arraignment of civilization, this diet of 
poisons! 

PASTRY to the adult taste is like rich cake to the infant 
palate. 

The case of the four girls at a boarding school who received 
a very fine fruit cake from home, and who ate it one evening 
with the result that all four were dead the next day, was inves¬ 
tigated by the authorities in the hope of finding something else 
the cause, as cake had only resulted in sick headaches and stom¬ 
ach troubles in former experiences. But this cake contained 
nothing but the usual ingredients, aided by the usual rich spices, 
dried currants, citron and some grated orange peel mixed with 
cocoanut fibre. All spices are indigestible. All citron is in¬ 
digestible. All cocoanut is indigestible. All dried currants are 
indigestible. All orange peel is indigestible. Eggs cooked into 
cake are indigestible as are also the flour ingredients. In fact 
the whole cake was a dangerous conglomeration. 


Nature’s Doctors 


135 


But it pleased the palate. 

When it was going down to the stomach it tasted about as 
inviting as anything humanly constructed could have tasted. 
Then the stomach replied. 

In an orphan home the head housekeeper visited the depart¬ 
ment of the small children, and gave orders that they should 
not be restricted in what they wished to eat. The order was: 
“Let them have all they want and what they want. The appe¬ 
tite should be the judge. Nature made the appetite and she 
made also the foods.” The order was obeyed. On the table 
were placed the following articles: Bread, toast, milk, cream, 
sugar, mashed potatoes, fried potatoes, meat stew,- and fruit 
cake. The children were told to eat what they wished and 
in the order they desired. The first course was fruit cake; the 
second course was fruit cake; the third course was fruit cake; 
then came the call for the doctor. In the investigation that 
followed the housekeeper tried to disclaim her order to permit 
the children to choose their own foods, eat what they wished 
and all they wished. But the proof was too certain. Fourteen 
newly made graves gave her something to think about; and the 
agonies of sick children echoed in her ears. 

That housekeeper is the type of the person who believes that 
the taste should govern our food selection. It is certainly a 
mystery why nature should invite humanity to always prefer 
the things that hurt. But they do. 

What was true of the fatal fruit cake, is true now and al¬ 
ways concerning the craving for pastry. 

It is delicious to the taste. 

It is made of refined flour, which is a poison; and of LARD 
which is not acted upon by the gastric juice of the stomach. 
But it tastes nice. It is inviting as far as the throat; beyond 
that zone there is no sense of enjoyment. The things that we 
most prefer and that hurt, afford no pleasure below the throat. 
The throat, then, does all the craving. Strong men and lofty 
minded women are ruled by that narrow piece of membrane 
known as the throat; and they call it the demand of nature. 
The brain is not consulted. The intelligence is not consulted. 
It is the throat that is the master engineer of the whole body. 
The matinee girls who load up with impure chocolates within 
an hour or so of their evening meal, and then go home with a 


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sickly appetite and pose as delicate eaters because they are not 
hungry, are ruled by that narrow stretch of lining in the rear 
of their mouths; and know nothing of the guiding help of the 
brain or its intelligence. They eat what they like and when 
they like. 

It is on this principle that pastry rules the cravings of 
millions of people. 

Pastry has never yet furnished one particle of food to the 
body; but on the other hand it has wrought havoc with the 
stomach, with the blood and with every organ. As a test of the 
delicious taste of things fried in lard, the following experiment 
was made some years ago and has been heretofore published 
in several books: A lot of ordinary sawdust was cooked in the 
frying pan, with lard. It was seasoned with salt and pepper, 
and then served at breakfast to a party of men and women 
who had been used to the good things of the table. Without 
exception they declared it most appetizing. No more harm 
came from it than from the usual indulgence in fried things; 
and it was a week afterward that the guests learned the facts. 
Of course the stomach had a fight to dispose of this sawdust; 
but so has it after every meal in which lard is eaten. The doc¬ 
tor may not be needed at once, but he is waiting around the 
corner, biding his time. 


FACTS ABOUT TEA AND OTHER DRINKS 


Nothing could be more shameful than an unwarranted at¬ 
tempt to deprive the people of their favorite beverage. Tea 
fills in many an aching void. It soothes; it quiets the nerves; 
it lessens the acuteness of unrest; it reduces the vitality of 
pain; it checks the flow of animal energy in the muscles by 
throttling down the nervous intensity; it puts to sleep the 
nerves themselves; it stops the heart from its over-active beat¬ 
ing; it says to the stomach, rest in semi-digestive mood for a 
while; it deadens the nerve centres; it gives to all organs a 
fairly reasonable imitation of what paralysis is like, without in 
fact bringing on paralysis for some years to come. 

These are the good qualities of tea. 

If it has any bad qualities, they consist of two main things: 




Nature’s Doctors 137 

1. This habit of quieting the nerves spreads to all the parts 
of the body that depend on the nerves for their life. 

2. The demands of the body for nerve-quieting tea increase 
as the years go by until it requires much more tea in later years 
than formerly. 

One Hundred Percent of Civilization means that nothing 
shall enter the human body that is not needed to build it. 

Tea contains no food element whatever. 

But it does contain elements that are poisons to the body; 
notably the element that deadens the nerves. Hence it is in two 
ways the enemy of one hundred percent of civilization. The lat¬ 
ter says, what is the use of taking in things that have no part in 
building life; and for a greater reason, what is the use of taking 
in needless things that are affirmatively poisonous? A very 
logical inquiry. 

In addition to the poisoning element that deadens the nerves, 
there are other elements that poison the blood without deaden¬ 
ing the nerves. 

If a baby cries because of pain, three courses are afforded 
the loving mother from which to choose: she can hit the baby 
over the head hard enough to put it to sleep for a long time; 
she can give it some drug to quiet its nerves; or she can study 
the cause of the pain and remove the cause. She generally 
selects the middle course; and in her ignorance she is contented 
for she does not know that every dose of nerve-quieting drug 
is paving the foundation of future paralysis. 

It is civilization not to take into the body something that is 
not needed to build its life; it is civilization to omit the things 
also that do actual harm; but it is quite a drop toward bar¬ 
barism to admit needless stuff, and to admit dangerous stuff, 
while at the same time laying the corner stone of paralysis by 
admitting nerve-quieters. 

Tea enjoys the pleasant status of being a slow poisoner. To 
be sure the U. S. Government in a Bulletin denounced iced tea 
as slow suicide. But one cup does no perceptible harm; in fact 
the injury is such a small fraction of one percent of real danger 
that it cannot be measured. Yet the heart and vital centers 
have been hurt that fraction of one percent, and will never 
again all through life be just as sound again. It requires years 
before the heart gets leaky, the liver stale, the kidneys sluggish, 


138 Complete Life Building 

the lungs weak and the stomach flabby; but they get there just 
the same. 

The BLADDER is about the first organ to furnish evidence of 
the value of quieting the nerves. The contents of the bladder 
are held in place by a certain valve that opens only when the 
will of the mind orders; although some young folks have not 
the power to control it especially in sleep. This valve is depend¬ 
ent on the energy of the nerves to hold it shut. After years of 
having the nerves quieted by tea drinking, they are no longer 
able to keep the bladder valve shut tight. It opens and the 
water of the bladder drips out and saturates the clothing. 

Have you ever entered the room of a house where the tea 
drinking women, and the tea drinking old men are assembled; 
aud have you noticed as you come in from outdoors, the close 
and deadening smell of dripped urine? Even the young folks 
afford this odor if they are tea drinkers and have had their 
nerves quieted to that extent. There is not an old codger living 
to-day who does not wear clothing saturated with this odor if 
he has been a tea drinker; and there is not an old man tea 
drinker with a sound bladder valve. The tea drinking women 
overload themselves with perfumes to conceal the real state of 
their bladder troubles; but the concealment is never complete. 

Tea given as a beverage to children in their early years, as 
is the custom in many countries, results in permanent bladder 
leakage at night, and often during their active hours; and 
these victims are doctored by other drugs for other causes, and 
so do not become normal. 

The deadening of the nerves, under the claim of quieting 
them, results in real nerve quietude in the course of time. 
Paralysis is one of the three leading methods by which people 
die when they have no chronic illness. 

1. Pneumonia. 

2. Paralysis. 

3. Apoplexy. 

Paralysis may attack the body in whole or in part; or it may 
attack the brain. 

PARESIS, or paralysis of the brain, never had its origin in 
tea drinking; it follows syphilis, acquired or inherited, and is 
always hastened by the craving for cigarettes. 


Nature’s Doctors 


139 


But the heart action is lowered to such an extent by tea drink¬ 
ing that the victim falls easy prey to that malady. So also all 
the nerve centers are made feeble by tea drinking. Out of one 
thousand cases of paralysis of the body, it was found that nine 
hundred and ninety were of persons who were tea drinkers. 

Every person who goes into the water at the public bathing 
places is warned not to do so within an hour or two after eat¬ 
ing; the reason being that paralysis has followed bathing too 
soon after eating; but in every case without an exception it has 
been found, if investigated for the purpose, that the paralytic 
was a tea drinker. In fact we are sure that a non-tea drinker 
could enter the water at any time without harm. 

One doctor in a large city had in one month eleven cases of 
paralysis following a bath too soon after the evening meal, or 
after a late night meal; and in every case he ascertained that 
the victim was a tea drinker. In a town of six thousand people, 
in one year there were seventeen cases of paralysis; and in 
every case the victim was a tea drinker. A very peculiar affair 
came to the attention of a physician of our acquaintance: eight 
men were camping out in very cold weather; and had occasion 
to do some laundry work in a brook nearby; all of the men 
rolled up their sleeves and plunged their hands and arms in the 
ice cold water. One man fell over with a short gasp, paralyzed. 
It is a fact that has been verified in the most careful inquiry, 
that this man was the only tea drinker in the party; and had 
brought his tea along to the camp; while the others brought 
coffee. 

The explanation is: this man had so deadened his nerves by 
the frequent use of tea that they were not able to withstand the 
shock of the sudden exposure to the cold water; it was the last 
spark of vitality in the nerve centers that went out. 

COFFEE 

The greatest living man at the time of this writing, when his 
achievements are considered, is Thomas A. Edison, now nearly 
eighty. Among other things he says that he expects to live to 
be ninety, possibly more; his arteries are as flexible as those of 
a child. He cuts out booze, he says, and tobacco and tea; but 


140 


Complete Life Building 

drinks coffee, taking care to have it diluted with hot milk, like 
the French half and half, or cafe au lait. This milk is one of 
the true foods: coffee is much less injurious than tea, if diluted 
with a true food. Its injury is so slight that it may be over¬ 
come by outdoor life and activity in the fresh air; and it leaves 
no after effect like tea. 

But strong coffee, even if cooked but a short time, is a de¬ 
cided poison. 

Long cooked coffee is also a poison. 

Re-cooked coffee is the worst form of this drink. The prac¬ 
tice of leaving the grounds in the coffee pot and adding more 
coffee from time to time is one of the climacteric forms of 
ignorance in an age of barbarism. 

COCOA with milk is a good drink, if pure. 

CHOCOLATE, even the best brands, is not usually found 
pure, and is not a true food, although in an emergency a starv¬ 
ing person can live on it, but in a state of growing weakness, 
and for only a limited time. It gradually leads to enlargement 
of the liver. But cocoa with milk seems to be free from this 
dangerous tendency. 

Charged drinks, soda waters, and gas waters contain carbonic 
acid, one of the deadliest of poisons; but the acid that is in a 
glass of such a drink has but slight effect, for the reason that it 
passes off in the effervescence; and the only damage it does is 
to dry up the walls of the stomach and make digestion difficult. 
But the continued use of such drinks will lower the vitality of 
the lungs by drying up the natural mucus and exposing the 
tissue to the inroads of germs. 

Experts in tuberculosis have made the statement that this 
malady is often, but not always, started by soda water drink¬ 
ing. They have many thousands of cases to sustain the charge; 
and in addition they point out the fact that the chief work of 
the lungs is to throw out of the blood the carbonic acid; and 
this is a well known function of exhaling, as every outgoing 
breath is laden with a dangerous quantity of this deadly acid. 
Why, then, take in the same acid in the form of a drink ? This 
is the argument, but the proof is seen largely in the great num¬ 
ber of victims of tuberculosis among the drinkers of soda water 
and gas waters, or charged waters, all of which contain car¬ 
bonic acid, the poison that the lungs throw off. 


Nature’s Doctors 


141 


FADS AND FANCIES 


There are many new ideas born every year; and some last 
for quite a while. Let us see what they are; at least the more 
prominent of them. 

VITAMINS, or vitamines as originally called, are intangible 
vital qualities in foods and things that are like food. Our book 
of this Club has referred to them when highly useful as life¬ 
building foods as distinguished from life sustaining foods. 
Thus pasteurized or sterilized milk is life sustaining, but not life 
building; raw milk is the latter, and may be said to contain 
more vitamins. 

On the other hand there are many things that contain vita¬ 
mins that are not good food: thus tomatoes hold the anti-scurvy 
qualities, but contain a poison known as oxalic acid that renders 
them unfit as food, and it is known that they cause more rheu¬ 
matism than any other agency. 

Wheel grease, axle grease and soap grease are richer in vita¬ 
mins by actual tests than any other class of foods; but they are 
not suited to the stomach of civilization. Yet the inhabitants 
of the Arctic zone devour them with the same relish that you 
eat your favorite dish. 

The germs of diphtheria, of typhoid, or small pox and other 
diseases are very highly charged with vitamins; so is the sewer¬ 
age of a great city which fattens our finest oysters; but people 
are not inclined to eat germs or sewerage. 

The lesson to be learned is this: It is not everything that 
contains vitamins that is suited to our table or yours; although 
foods that lack life-building qualities are not the best. Some 
vitaminous foods are very valuable; others are poisons. The 
valuable kinds should not be blamed because their pets turn 
up in bad society. 

Quite a number of years ago the world was flooded with in¬ 
formation concerning the importance of calories. But the idea 
lost its grip on the public mind and has since gone to sleep in 
the same grave that is being dug for vitamins, which will join 
its noble ancestors in the coming on of time. 

A calory is the measure or standard for learning the heat 
production of food. Thus kerosene oil has nearly one hundred 



142 


Complete Life Building 

percent of calories, which gives it a high food value except that 
the human stomach will not digest it. The rule of measure¬ 
ment is this: the amount of heat necessary to raise the tempera¬ 
ture of two quarts of water one degree of the ordinary ther¬ 
mometer, is one calory. Out West when coal is high and corn 
is cheap, the farmers burn the ear corn as fuel. The same corn 
in the human body or in any animal that cares for it, will burn 
chemically and turn itself into heat. This is true of grains, 
fats and other things. 

Fat meats and oils make twice as many calories per ounce as 
the grains. That is why the people of the far North eat blub¬ 
ber and whale oil; they require more heat than we do, and they 
would freeze on a diet of our grains, potatoes and lean meats. 

An ounce of sugar contains one hundred calories; while an 
ounce of bacon contains two hundred calories. An egg contains 
one hundred calories. A baked potato has one hundred; a slice 
of bread one hundred; an ounce of milk only twenty. Three 
ounces of lean beef or lamb will have about one hundred calo¬ 
ries, and this is an ordinary helping of meat. A small chop 
has the same number, except pork chops which contain more 
per ounce even if lean. Two medium slices of buttered toast 
have two hundred to three hundred calories. A cup of coffee 
with plenty of cream has from two hundred to three hundred 
calories. 

An ordinary dish of oatmeal with cream and sugar contains 
from four hundred to five hundred calories. 

A half pound of candy has eight hundred calories. Many a 
matinee girl eats this amount during the afternoon; and then 
poses as delicate when she lacks appetite for her evening meal. 
She is pitied, and her fond parents think of putting her under 
the doctor’s care. 

Eight hundred calories! 

The average man needs just about eight hundred calories at 
each of his principal meals, breakfast and noon; but only about 
six hundred for the evening meal. Yet he does not need them 
in such concentrated form as the matinee girl’s afternoon feast • 
nor all of the sugar and starch kind. He requires what are 
called protein foods, with starches, sugars and fats. 

A hard working man needs one thousand calories at each 


Nature’s Doctors 143 

meal. Some need thirteen hundred, or thirty-nine hundred 
each working day. 

The average woman who does not perform much physical 
labor, needs about six hundred three times a day; a total of 
eighteen hundred each day. If she works hard, she needs about 
twenty-five hundred a day. It must be remembered that the 
man or woman who is getting stout is eating too many calories 
daily; for these are the cause of increasing the fat in the body. 
Eat less of this class of food, if you wish to reduce your weight; 
and walk or work more. Every hour of strenuous physical 
activity throws off nearly three hundred calories. 

We have mentioned some of the better foods that contain 
calories; but have neglected to include others that are unfit for 
the human body, such as vegetable oils, lard, fat pork, crisp 
foods, and a score or more of indigestible articles, all of which 
contain these things in as liberal quantity as do cream and 
butter. 

In some restaurants the menu cards tell the calories of each 
order of food; but such measurements are worse than useless. 
Buckwheat cakes and com bread are both rich in this quality; 
but both are low grade foods for the present race of people. 
They furnish heat, but set up irritation of the skin and blood. 
Buckwheat is not a staying food; and refined corn meal is an 
irritant. The meal from the whole corn grain, including the 
germ, is not obtainable to-day. If it were, we should have an 
ideal food for winter weather, but too heating for sum m er. 
But the presence of calories in great number does not of itself 
make the food valuable for our climate. 

Axle grease is exceedingly rich in calories and even more so 
in vitamins; a barrel of it in the polar regions would be the 
most welcome of all gifts, and it is true that the inhabitants 
there have eaten worse things than wagon grease. But such 
food would kill others. 

There are three kinds of calories; and three kinds of vita¬ 
mins; some foods that contain calories, possess no vitamins 
whatever; but the reverse is not true. We find calories in three 
classes of food: those that build the body, those that give it im¬ 
mediate energy, and those that store away energy. These three 
classes include: 


144 


Complete Life Building 


1. Foods and so-called foods that are chemically related to 
the body, but that are not assimilated by the body. 

2. Foods that are suited to the needs of life, that build new 
life, and that heal a body that is in imperfect health; because, 
in addition to being chemically fit, they are naturally fit also. 

It will thus be seen that what chemistry says is food, is not 
always suited to the body. The Ralston Health Club depends 
on the results of actual tests, rather than the claims of the 
chemist; but does not oppose the latter as far as the true foods 
are concerned. 

The word vitamine was made up out of two ideas by a Pole 
named Casimir Funk. The first part, as is seen at a glance, 
relates to the life value; and the second part to the chemical 
value. When the two combine, we have what we term the 
TRUE FOODS; and as they play the most important part in 
this book, we need not enter into a dry technical discussion of 
them, as this would weary the reader. 

AUTO-SUGGESTION.—In the agony of a need of curative 
help the masses of semi-intelligent people and some who are 
intelligent bought a book containing a list of cases where mar¬ 
vels of cure were effected by suggestion; sometimes self-sug¬ 
gestion; but in most cases inspired by others. As far as any 
real results were achieved they followed the teachings of the 
great system which has been brought into a practical method 
of use in a book now quite well known under the name of 
“Other Mind.” 

The basis of cure is an appeal to the imagination as stronger 
than the will power; but imagination will not build a marble 
mansion out of common bricks, nor a well body out of food poi¬ 
sons. Faith systems of cure have sense enough to order the use 
of proper foods and habits. We kept track in many ways of 
the results of auto-suggestion, and curative suggestion, and in 
no instance were permanent benefits secured unless the diet 
laid the foundation of a better body. 

Any person who wishes to do so may begin by reforming the 
diet according to the teachings of this Club; then may add all 
kinds of suggestion as an aid to the quick disappearance of dis¬ 
ease, and we believe that marvels and miracles will happen in 
the most astounding manner; but omit the improvement in the 
diet, and all else will fail utterly. 


Nature’s Doctors 


145 


Special Exercises.—Why exercise and scatter the blood 
through the body when it is carrying a load of poisons? Is it 
not much more sensible to build pure blood and send that to all 
parts for the benefit of the general health? Therefore when 
exercises are advertised for the cure of disease, it is better first 
to lay the foundation for good health by attention to the mate¬ 
rial on which a perfect body is built; for the kind of material 
employed in making the human body determines the kind of 
health it will possess. 

THE SPARK OF LIFE.—At the top of the spine in the 
back of the neck is a small world of life, tiny but great in 
power. From this seat of vital force there emanate three sets 
of wires in the form of nerves and these nerves or electrical 
wires that run: 

TO THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS AND CONTROL 
THEM. 

TO THE HEART AND CONTROL THE CIRCULATION. 
TO THE STOMACH AND ALL DIGESTIVE ORGANS 
AND CONTROL THEM. 

The diet of this spark of life is calcium and chlorine. Any 
scientific expert in this line of study, and most doctors, will tell 
you that without these two elements the heart cannot beat, the 
lungs cannot breathe and the digestive tract cannot convert 
food into blood. Therefore we call calcium and chlorine the 
foods of the spark of life. Some experts insist that chlorine 
alone has this honor of being the source of life. 

A blow on this part of the spine will cause diabetes; and the 
connection between the top of the spine and the abdominal con¬ 
tents seems remote. A violent bending of the same part of the 
spine will at once stop the heart from beating. Pressure will 
cause the lungs to cease breathing. Stretching normally up¬ 
ward in the effort to add an inch to the height of the body, so 
that the top section of the spine, which is the base of the brain, 
is given the stimulus of the pull upward, will increase the 
power of the heart-beats and send new warmth to the extremi¬ 
ties; by which method the circulation of the blood has been 
carried to the feet and hands and given them a natural tem¬ 
perature, not only once but in many experiments. 


146 


Complete Life Building 

Here we have the marvel of life. 

After you have eaten a hearty meal, if a blow is given to this 
part of the spine, digestion will cease at once and not be re¬ 
sumed for some time. But if instead of the blow, your brain 
sends to this spark of life some unpleasant news that affects it 
like a physical blow, but by the mental blow in fact, digestion 
will at once cease; and everybody knows that bad news stops 
digestion. Bad news enters through the major brain, and is 
transferred to the spinal section. Not only does it interfere 
with digestion, but it also depresses the heart, and checks the 
lung action; showing the triple connection between these func¬ 
tions and the spark of life. 

A person may be hungry and not be able to eat because of 
lack of appetite. Many a person who is hungry and who has a 
fine appetite, has lost it by hearing bad news just before a meal. 
Digestion must be sustained by a real appetite in order to do 
its best. It is said that the mind controls the health; but the 
fact is that the mind controls the spinal section which holds the 
spark of life; and the latter controls the health; for that which 
directs the functions of digestion, respiration and circulation, 
really directs the whole machinery of life. 

Worry is nearly always unnecessary; yet it has killed health, 
body and mind. We cite the case of diabetes because cause and 
effect are most easily connected. This almost incurable malady 
has three causes: 

1. A physical blow on the top of the spine. 

2. Worry. 

3. Drinking water from surface sources, as rivers, ponds, 
lakes and brooks. 

A specialist in diabetes stated that, of every hundred cases 
that came under his observation, sixty-five percent or more had 
their origin in worry; five were due to physical injury to the 
top of the spine; and thirty came from some unknown cause. 

As worry is a disease of the mind it follows that the mind 
must communicate with the spinal section containing the spark 
of life, and this section must disturb the digestive functions of 
the abdomen in a manner that causes diabetes. 

Worry is a mental disease that can be gradually overcome by 
the acquisition of good physical health; for the poisons that 


Nature’s Doctors 


147 


we are fighting in this Club affect the brain and the mind. 

MENTAL POISONING.—Doctors who make a study of the 
insane patients in asylums as well as in their private practice, 
agree that what is known as TOXIC POISONING in the ali¬ 
mentary canal may cause insanity; and they have issued state¬ 
ments of cases that are known to have arisen from this source. 
Their treatment consists in prescribing only food that is abso¬ 
lutely pure, and they insist that such food shall be perfectly 
balanced; that is, contain all the fourteen needed elements of 
the body. The absence of even one needed element makes a 
cure impossible. Says a leading alienist, or insanity expert: 
“It is too well known that this malady is steadily increasing; 
and I do not hesitate to say that much of it is due to toxic poi¬ 
soning from improper diet.” You cannot carry these poisons 
in the system and put them into circulation in the blood with¬ 
out saturating the brain with them; for the whole flow of blood 
of the entire body passes into and through the brain and washes 
that organ with its evil fluid. 

Therefore if you wish a sound mind, get a sound body by 
securing a completely balanced diet of the fourteen food 
elements. 

THE IMAGINATION.—This quality is more powerful than 
the will; for the latter makes up its mind to do a certain thing 
whether it believes it can do it or not; while the imagination 
believes that it can do it; and what a person fully believes con¬ 
trols him. This quality is in and of the mind. Now it is well 
proved that the mind controls the spark of life. If therefore 
the imagination becomes strong enough to sway the mind it 
will reach out and sway the spark of life, through which it 
will sway the whole body; and by this means a person who has 
an overpowering belief in any method of attaining health will 
reach the realization of his belief. This explains why certain 
great influences have produced seeming miracles. 

But our advice is to adopt two courses : 

1. Build a perfect body by perfect foods. 

2. Turn the mind around until it faces the rising sun of a 
bright, optimistic, beautiful day. 


148 


Complete Life Building 

FACTS THAT ARE NEW 


Countless experiments are going on in all parts of the ac¬ 
tively progressing world, with the purpose in view of avoiding 
sickness and prolonging life. New knowledge is therefore to 
be expected. When we say that some facts are new, we mean 
new to humanity. The Western Hemisphere was called the new 
world although it was as old as the old world when it was 
discovered. 

Things that are partly old and partly new, are regarded in 
the latter class if their uses are of greater value to humanity 
than ever before under some recently made discovery. 

But we do not teach ideas that are new when the proof of 
their truthfulness has not been well established. Thus it is 
being claimed by many reputable investigators that the vitality 
of a plant or animal is a tangible ether mass. We do not teach 
this, for we do not know that it is true. We did teach thirty- 
five years ago that there were two atmospheres; one inside of 
the other; and that the interior one was what is now called the 
ether, which fills all space and connects the sun and planets 
with each other. Wireless telegraphy makes use of this interior 
atmosphere, and its existence is universally acknowledged. 

The body of a dying person has been weighed just before 
death and just after; and an appreciable difference has been 
found in the weight. This experiment has been made many 
times; and so important has it seemed that scientists insisted 
on placing scales under the cot of a dying person and observ¬ 
ing the instant drop in the weight just at that second of time 
when the physician noted the actual passing out of the life. 

Other experiments have been made to the effect that some¬ 
thing semi-tangible passes out and floats away. While these 
claims seem well proved, the conclusion insisted upon that life 
is a vital mass of ether substance is not sustained. It may be 
true or it may be mere guesswork. 

But, to speak in more ready language, every human being is 
subject to two tides of vitality in every twenty-four hours. 

1. The FIRST TIDE begins feebly at midnight and increases 
gradually up to mid-day, or twelve o’clock noon. It is known 
as the ELIMINATING TIDE. 

2. The SECOND TIDE begins feebly at noon and increases 



Nature’s Doctors 149 

gradually up to mid-night. It is known as the ACCUMULAT¬ 
ING TIDE. 

These two tides have been recently discovered, but their ex¬ 
istence and operation are fully proved, and they verify the 
many hundreds of well known facts in the life and health of 
the body. 

The names will seem misleading when we say that elimina¬ 
tion creates vitality and accumulation destroys vitality. This 
is due to the fact that the act of living is the act of transform¬ 
ing nutrition into life; and this can be done only by eliminat¬ 
ing the source of nutrition, which is food, by changing it into 
vital energy; just as the fuel put into a furnace by being con¬ 
sumed is turned into power that moves great engines and 
machinery. The fuel spends itself, and by so doing generates 
energy. The more vitality it creates, the more waste material 
it eliminates. 

Two simple tests have been made thousands of times, always 
with the same result: 

1. Persons who eat heartily at morning and less heartily at 
noon, and lightly at evening, all other things being equal, never 
accumulate fat or become over-stout. They eliminate all they 
eat. 

2. Persons who eat lightly at morning, and heartily at noon, 
and heavily at the evening meal, all other things being equal, 
invariably accumulate flesh and add weight to excess. They 
accumulate what they eat. 

Persons who omit their morning meals are always in bad 
health to begin with, or they would not make this omission. By 
eating at noon and night enough to satisfy their hunger, they 
add weight and become flabby. 

Persons who eat heartily mornings and a proper meal at 
noons and omit the evening meals, become thin very soon. The 
reason is plain: they eliminate all they eat. If any meal is to 
be omitted it should never be the morning meal, always that of 
the evening, if one seeks to avoid becoming fat; on the con¬ 
trary, by omitting breakfast and eating heartily at noon and 
evening, the natural result must be increase of weight; and 
facts prove this to be the case. 

Sleep or profound rest taken for any period long or short 
before the noon meal, occurs during the eliminating period, and 


150 


Complete Life Building 

is sure to calm the nervous system and prepare the way for 
digesting a good meal at noon time. 

But if the sleep or profound rest occurs soon after the noon 
meal, it takes place in the accumulating period, and tends to 
make the body sluggish, and assists in adding weight. There 
have been thousands of tests of this fact, and it has been abun¬ 
dantly proved; and it is a very easy thing for any person to 
prove who is so situated that sleep can be sought soon after 
the noon meal. 

If you have done hours of hard work with the brain or body 
prior to the noon meal, and should go tired to the table, the 
food becomes a poison, even the best of things. Five minutes 
or more of perfect rest in a reclining position, will counteract 
this poison. k The reason will be stated later on in its proper 
place. 

Hard physical activity of an exhausting character after a 
heavy meal will completely stop digestion. Bad news also will 
do the same thing because the nervous shock from bad news 
prevents the flow of gastric juice to the stomach. If you have 
eaten heavily, instead of working it off by severe physical ef¬ 
fort as in a brisk walk, it is better to rest half an hour and then 
take a gentle walk. 

Digestion is largely a nervous energy at work in the stomach; 
and when the tax is heavy on the nervous system, the brain is 
agitated and slightly inflamed. For this reason it is not possi¬ 
ble to sleep for several hours or possibly all night after a hearty 
meal. The light supper is by far the best. Muscle making 
foods, such as meats, cheese, old peas, beans and the like will 
over-excite the system all night if eaten late in the day; the 
muscles will twitch, the nerves will jump, and the brain will be 
afire with irritation. For this reason the evening meal should 
be not only a light one, but should not contain any muscle mak¬ 
ing foods. 

The vitality of the body travels. 

If the stomach is empty and has been empty for hours, when 
you retire at night, the vitality will have traveled to the brain; 
and this vitality will keep you awake. For this reason it is 
wicked to send children to bed without their suppers; and it is 
much better to give them a bite on retiring if they really want 
it. Grown up persons who fail to sleep at nights, will generally 


Nature’s Doctors 


151 


cure the trouble by eating something just as they get into bed. 

Here are some of the parts of the body to which the vitality 
travels: 

1. When the stomach is empty, as has just been stated, the 
vitality will travel to the brain if the muscles are at rest; which 
accounts for the reason why a person cannot go to sleep ordi¬ 
narily on an empty stomach. 

2. When the body is at rest and the Stomach has some trifling 
bit of wholesome food to digest, the vitality will leave the brain 
and go to the stomach; which accounts for the fact that sleep 
is invited by this experiment. 

3. When the stomach is full, and the brain is severely taxed 
with some deep problem or hard mental labor, the vitality will 
travel to the brain, and the food will not be digested. 

4. When the stomach is full, and the muscles are severely 
taxed with hard physical labor, the vitality will travel to the 
muscles and the food will not be digested. 

The best mental labor is done in the morning on an empty 
stomach; and the best physical labor is done on a light meal, or 
when the stomach is empty. Soldiers who have been regularly 
and properly fed, fight better on an empty stomach if they are 
not weak from loss of food. It is claimed that Napoleon re¬ 
versed this rule, as he began his battles .as soon as possible after 
his soldiers had eaten; but before a battle he gave orders for 
light rations. His motto was that his men should be well shod 
and well fed at all times, which was a very good one. But 
nevertheless it is a provable fact that a fully fed soldier can 
neither march nor fight at his best; but this means immediately 
after a full meal. 

GROWTH TAKES PLACE ONLY DURING SLEEP. 

No one grows when awake. 

The baby that remains wakeful day after day never adds an 
ounce of weight. If it sleeps only eight hours in twenty-four 
it merely repairs what it loses in the involuntary processes of 
life within its body. For every hour more than eight daily, it 
grows, and adds to its weight. The very new infant needs 
about twenty-two hours daily; later on, twenty; and still later 
on, eighteen hours. This time is reduced gradually as it grows, 
until at the age of ten it needs about ten hours; at the age of 


152 Complete Life Building 

fourteen nine hours; at the age of eighteen eight and a half 
hours; and after twenty-one, only eight hours until he is sixty 
years old; assuming the health is normal. 

The principle is this: At any age a period of eight hours’ 
sleep will merely repair normal waste following normal activity 
and the average amount of food of a wholesome and nutritious 
character. Therefore in order to carry on growth or increase of 
weight, it is necessary to sleep more than eight hours. This 
explains why when some persons eat lightly they still go on 
gaining in weight ; they are sleeping more than eight hours. 

Now comes the influence of the accumulating tide which be¬ 
gins at noon and ends at midnight; any excess of sleep during 
this accumulating period will quickly add to the weight. By 
actual test made in many thousands of cases, the best method 
for reducing the weight, is to eat seventy-five percent of the 
daily food during the eliminating tide or before noon; the re¬ 
maining twenty-five percent during the accumulating tide, or 
better between late afternoon and midnight; omit all sleep up 
to eleven o’clock or twelve, and take only six or seven hours’ 
sleep, and all after midnight. 

There have been many thousands of cases of excessive fat that 
have not yielded to the usual treatment prescribed by physi¬ 
cians which is to eat less and exercise more; which have been 
cured by sleeping less, and eating very little between noon and 
midnight. 

On the other hand there have been many thousands of other 
cases where thin persons have been unable to gain in weight 
despite the most careful adherence to the rules laid down for 
that purpose; who have accomplished the desired result by re¬ 
versing the above methods. They should get nine hours’ sleep, 
of which four hours should occur before midnight. They 
should eat less muscle-making food and more of the fuel kind; 
and their chief eating should occur afternoons and evenings, 
which is during the accumulating tide. 

The TWIN SECRETS OF LIFE are summed up as follows: 

1. Study and re-study and even memorize this group of 
FACTS THAT ARE NEW. 

2. Turn to the great chapter on the TRUE FOODS and 
make the knowledge of them your perpetual guide. 



EIGHTH SECTION 


A NEW BODY 

OW COMES the great inquiry, what shall we do with 
the body that lacks perfect health? What shall we 
do with the temple that holds more bad material 
than good in its composition? The medicine that 
we take adds nothing; most of it drives away, by a 
rough process, a portion of the accumulated decay that floods 
all the organs and tissue. Five hundred years ago, the doctor 
said: “You must get rid of a lot of bad blood and matter in your 
body; and then it is time to use better material to take the place 
of what you drive off.” 

The theory was perfect. 

The same theory prevailed five thousand years ago. We sum 
it up and see that it looks right: 

1. Get rid of the bad. 

2. Ee-build with the good. 

If you were to live ten thousand years* hence, that theory 
could not be improved upon. First get rid of the bad; then 
build with the good material. 

In the whole history of medicine the one effort has been made 
to get rid of the bad. As the bad circulated largely in the 
blood, they bled the patient. George Washington was bled to 
death by doctors, and under a method that was centuries old. 
It shows how close we stand to the barbaric past. They bled 
the sick with lances. Then they bled them with leeches; and 

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Complete Life Building 

these blood-sucking 1 worms were cultivated and sold to doctors 
in great numbers all through the civilized world. If you pick 
up a book of the old times, you will see the doctors called leeches. 
To “send for the leech” meant to send for the doctor. 

By the blood-letting method a large part of the blood was 
let out of the body; and as far as it contained bad matter, that 
too went out; but the same proportion of bad matter remained 
in the body, which could not be let out as the patient would die 
from lack of blood. This barbaric practice in time yielded to 
the rising sun of better sense. 

It was finally agreed that there was much bad matter that 
could be forced out through the skin; so sweating was resorted 
to, and soaking of the feet accomplished a part of the same end. 

It was also known that the digestive tract contained a great 
accumulation of poisonous matter; and this could be physicked 
out by physics; and the doctors were ever afterward called 
physickers, or physicians; and are so called even unto this day. 

The double method has never prevailed in fact; for, as soon as 
the bad matter was got out, or as much of it as was possible to 
get out, the same bad habits of eating were retained. Of what 
use is it to remove the decay from a temple and bring in more 
decay? It is only when a patient is convalescent that care is 
taken in the selection of food; after that stage is passed it is 
understood that no care is necessary. For this half-used method 
the world has paid the penalty of being constantly physicked. 
Ninety million people in this country last year took physic. 
The pill habit is everywhere prevalent. Look in your daily 
papers and read the advertisements telling of the merits of 
endless kinds of physic. Where is the good old castor oil of 
our youth? What millions yearly use its offspring, castoria, a 
household word ? What millions use another remedy for 
clogged systems? What millions use still another purgative? 
What other millions use the pills that work while you sleep? 
What other millions use the fig preparations to loosen the 
bowels ? What other millions use this, that or the other ? Why, 
in a city of less than five hundred thousand people a WHOLE 
CAR-LOAD of physicking medicine enters EVERY WEEK 
IN THE YEAR, year in and year out! And this is true in 
the same ratio all over the country. 

yjhy are these physicking medicines taken? 


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155 


To drive out of the body the material that should never have 
been put in it. In every million dollars that is spent for food, 
there is a value of nine hundred thousand dollars that must be 
physicked out of the body to ward off sickness. Surely we do 
not live in an age of intelligent civilization, when nine dollars 
in every ten must be physicked out after it has been eaten. 
This practice is universal. As a doctor recently said: “I have 
practiced my profession for forty-seven years. In that time 
the people have put unfit food into their bodies and physicked 
and sweated them out; then more unfit food has been put in, 
and driven out; then more in, and out; in and out; in and out; 
in and out; and this see-saw game of life has been the steady 
occupation of the human race.” 

If you are sick and send for a doctor the first thing he does 
is to “clean you out.” This he does by medicines that act on 
the bowels and on the skin; he physicks and sweats you. Both 
these methods are weakening. They both take a lot of the good 
with the bad, and you need all the good you can get. Physick¬ 
ing is only a slight improvement on bleeding. 

But what is the remedy? 

If once you were really cleaned out, the thing to do is to 
avoid getting filled up again with dead tissue and poison mat¬ 
ter. But until you can get cleaned out, it is useless to talk of 
that. Yet the sweating and physicking do not clean you out 
in the one way that is needed; for your organs, your blood, 
your tissue, your bones, your skin, your nerves, are all clogged 
with dead tissue; and the plan of emptying your bowels does 
not reach the main zone of the trouble. Nor will sweating. 
There is but one true way and it is as old as humanity itself. 

Some hasty readers may believe, because we mention a fact, 
that we advocate it. You must read far enough to find out 
the difference between a statement of history and a recommen¬ 
dation of the thing referred to. For thousands of years the 
practice of fasting has been employed as the only possible way 
of cleaning out the poisons of the body and its organs and 
tissue. This method is probably as near to nature as anything 
can be. It reaches every part, large and small, near and far, 
in the whole body, while physicking and sweating reach certain 
avenues only. In fasting, all parts give up some portions of 
themselves, and the broken down parts are first disposed of and 


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Complete Life Building 

cast off. No decay or poison is omitted. All must go. When 
the fasting is continued beyond the poison stage, the main 
strength of the body must go; and that is where fasting begins 
to do harm. Nature never intended it to be used to tear down 
good structure. 

So necessary has this method of cleaning out the system been 
to the life and safety of the body itself, and so reluctant have 
people been to practice it, that every religion on earth from the 
beginning of records and long before, in all probability, has 
incorporated in its requirements the practice of fasting. Read 
the commands of any sect you please, in this or any age where 
religion was supreme master of the lives of the people, and you 
will find fasting taught and made imperative. No theology has 
existed without it. 

There are several kinds of fasting. 

One method includes many weeks. 

Another method includes many days. 

Another method includes one day in every week. 

Then a set of leaders advises the omission of the supper all 
the time in order to prepare the body for a breakfast appetite. 

Still another set of leaders advises the omission of every 
breakfast in order to clean out the body before the noon meal 
is taken. 

Others advise the omission of the noon meal on the theory 
that two meals a day are enough. 

Here are the results that have been secured by thousands of 
experiments covering many years: 

1. The fast that requires weeks of denial of food ruins the 
body, mind and vitality; and there is never a case of complete 
recovery from it. If the purpose is to subdue the energies of a 
resistant follower, the plan is perfect. Earthly hopes recede 
and the hereafter is the only solace to the long-term faster. 
This is rebellion against the laws of nature. During the period 
of development and ripening in this world, every human being 
must be loyal to the great mother that has bestowed life. The 
human body is a temple that cannot be maltreated in the hope 
of rewards hereafter. There is no more reason for torturing 
the beautiful child than there is for torturing the useful and 
noble manhood and womanhood that unfolds its character on 
this planet. 


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157 


2. The fasting that embraces a period of many days is wrong 
when it reaches that dividing line where the poisons have been 
thrown out of the body, and the main structure is being torn 
down. The purpose of fasting ends when it ceases to be a 
cleanser. 

3. The plan of fasting one day in every week, by wholly 
omitting all food, is sure to ruin the mind and nerves. All 
fasting is useless unless it is followed by the process of re¬ 
building a new body of new and better material. One fasting 
is enough; for, after that is over, the cleansed body should be 
rebuilt in such a way that no more cleansing is necessary. This 
failure to build anew with perfect material is the ONE GREAT 
ERROR of all time. Why should you clean a house if you are 
to bring back the dirt as soon as the cleaning is done? Why 
fast, if you are to go along in the old ruts, and eat the very 
things that you are trying to get out of the body? Wky take 
physic and drive off the poisons, if you are to keep on eating 
the very things that produce the poisons? 

4. The omission of all the suppers is an equal error. It im¬ 
plies that the poisons are to be driven out by fasting, with no 
regard for the kind of food that is to follow. Omitting one 
supper is the cure for a failing appetite in the morning; for no 
person is healthy who lacks a morning appetite. The word 
breakfast came from two words, break fast, and the fast broken 
was the long interval between the supper and the meal of the 
following morning; generally twelve hours or more. The per¬ 
son who has no appetite for breakfast, gets very hungry towards 
evening and overeats at a time when the least eating is neces¬ 
sary. What you take into your stomach at the evening meal, 
may still be there at.the morning; or, if not in the stomach it¬ 
self, may be sluggishly moving along the digestive tract, in 
which case it is impossible to eat a proper breakfast. The cure 
of this abnormal and morbid condition is not the omission of 
the evening meal, but changing its foods to those that digest 
quickly, and all in harmony, with the quantity reduced. There 
is no greater folly than the eating of long-time foods in the 
evening; let them all be of the ONE-HOUR CLASS; one kind 
of food only at each meal, and not too much of that. You will 
find that this method will fully take the place of the evening 
fasting, for it is a cleaning process equal to the best fast. 


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Complete Life Building 

5. The plan of omitting the breakfast, which prevailed some 
years ago, killed the inventor of it, and ruined all persons who 
adopted it. It sought to turn the laws of eating upside down; 
to omit the power-supply of the day, which should precede the 
day's energies; and to bulge into bigness the clogging meal, 
which is the heavy dinner at the end of the afternoon or early 
in the evening. If you cannot eat more than one meal in a 
day, let it be the meal that gives the power to work on; which 
is the breakfast. Napoleon used to give his soldiers a full meal 
before a battle; the old theory was: feed them after the battle, 
as there will not be so many to feed, and hungry soldiers fight 
more savagely. Theories are not so safe as facts. Napoleon 
learned that food gave strength on which to march and to fight, 
and he won his battles until his own body was wrecked by an 
incurable disease that made his campaigns too arduous for him 
to combat the growing power of his enemies. Most doctors say: 
eat to repair the waste. The fact is, the waste does not need 
repairing, for that means the clogging of the system. Activi¬ 
ties carry off the dead tissue; rest piles them up and makes 
fasting and physicking necessary. No repairs are required un¬ 
til the dead material has been removed. The reasons for eating 
are: 

1. In the morning eat to supply the fighting strength for the 
battle of the first half of the day. Life's duties and activities 
are the battle. 

2. At noon eat to supply the fighting strength for the battle 
of the last half of the day. 

3. At the evening meal eat ONLY to supply the strength 
to carry on the involuntary functions of the organs until the 
next morning: circulation, respiration, the engines of the skin- 
pores, the waves of intestinal motion, the beating of the heart, 
the work of the kidneys, of the liver and other parts; these are 
to be given their power by the evening meal; and there is no 
other energy needed unless you are a night-worker. Never 
think of repairing waste tissue during rest. You cannot repair 
a clogged body. 

Use the material that you eat, after you eat it, and do not 
imagine that you can use it before you eat it. You will not 
have a clogged system if you eat to give strength to the activi¬ 
ties that are to follow. 


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HOW TO BUILD A NEW BODY 

There are two steps to be taken in building an entirely new 
body: 

1. Get rid of the old material. 

2. Use nothing but good material ever after. 

In the past, the many methods of getting rid of the old mate¬ 
rial were only half-way means; but, even then, they were not 
followed by the use of perfect material. No attention was paid 
to the kinds of food that were eaten. People physicked and 
sweated out of their bodies ninety-five* percent of all the food 
they put in. And now the cry is, fast' and starve, in order to 
get rid of the bad; but no thought is given to what kind of food 
is to follow when the bad is out. 

Take your own body for instance: It is necessarily filled 
with broken down tissue; every organ, bone, nerve, muscle, and 
cubic inch of flesh is the storehouse of waste matter. It could 
not be otherwise, for change is going on every second and 
change means the tearing down of the life that has been built 
up. If you have never built a new body, you have that task to 
perform. If you perform that task, you will then possess a new 
body, but you will not retain it unless you supply it with mate¬ 
rial that is free from the imperfections of the past. 

Buie 71 .—The best goal of earthly life is a perfect body. 

Buie 72 .—The quickest way for a person who is not well to 
secure good health is by building a new body. 

Buie 73 .—Health that seems perfect is not perfect until the 
body is built anew. 

Buie 74 .—Immunity from sickness, disease and contagion can 
be secured only by building a new body. 

Buie 75 .—The human body that has not been built new is the 
seat of disease-breeding soil, and* it is only a question of time 
when disease* or contagion will enter it. 

Buie* 76 .—When the body is built new, all disease-breeding 
soil is* removed ancl should remain away forever. 

Buie 77 .—The first step in building a new body is taken when 
a fast is employed to drive out all the waste soil that is present 
in the body. 


160 Complete Life Building 

Rule 78 .—The fast should be just long enough to get rid of 
the broken, down tissue, and no longer. 

Rule 79 .—The second step in building a new body is taken 
when all congested tissue is healed. 

Rule 80 .—The third step in building a new body is taken 
when the repair of the wasted parts is made by the introduc¬ 
tion of perfect material. 

Rule 81 .—The fourth and final step in building a new body is 
taken when a permanent diet is established that will not per¬ 
mit any of the Enemies of Life to secure a new hold on the 
system. 

THE FIRST STEP 

OMIT THREE MEALS.—These three meals are to be suc¬ 
cessive; and all on one day. Drink nothing but water, and all 
you want of that. The last meal before the fast is to be at 
about six o’clock in the evening. After that meal, eat nothing 
that night, and nothing the next day or night; so that you may 
be sure of thirty-six hours of no eating. The first meal to be 
eaten is on the morning following the day of fast, and not 
earlier than six or seven o’clock. 

SLEEP ALL YOU CAN.—It is better to begin* the fast after 
supper on a Saturday evening, so that you can get sleep on 
Sunday during the day, for a few hours at least, as well as at 
night. 

EXERCISE WHEN NOT SLEEPING.—Assuming that you 
are able to take some exercise, such as standing, walking, or 
other action, while not sleeping, it is best to adopt this prac¬ 
tice to the fullest extent of your strength. If you are weak, 
move about but little. But if you are strong, make your body 
as active as possible. 

THE SECOND STEP 

HEALING THE CONGESTED TISSUE.—There can be no 
broken down matter in the body unless it is attended by some 
degree of congestion; for, wherever that dead matter touches, 
it poisons the parts. When you remove it, the parts are left 
still congested but free from their life long enemy. The work 
of healing those congested surfaces is the step now to be taken. 
Pure albumin is the only direct and instant healer of congested 


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tissue. The only form of pure albumin is found in the white of 
an egg. This will heal a sore throat, sore stomach, sore intes¬ 
tines, sore lungs, sore breathing-passages, and all inward sore¬ 
ness in the body. Such soreness is often without pain. 
Whether you think you possess it or not, the method is the same: 

FIRST NEW MEAL.—On the morning after the day of fast¬ 
ing, drink cool water freely; then take into the mouth the 
white of a raw egg, holding the white in the mouth and throat 
as long as possible. Then very slowly drink a little cool water. 
Wait three or four minutes, and take another, white of an egg 
in the same way. Again wait three or four minutes and take 
the white of a third egg in the same way. Repeat until the 
whites of five raw eggs have been taken. Do not throw the 
yolks away. Cook them hard, and keep them for future use. 
They are splendid tissue builders. During the forenoon drink 
as much water as you crave. 

SECOND NEW MEAL.—At noon of the same day, drink 
some water. Then take a whole raw egg beaten or whipped in 
a third of a glass of new milk that has not been boiled or steril¬ 
ized. Swallow each mouthful very slowly, until this has been 
all taken. Rest five minutes; drink water; then take a second 
raw egg beaten in a third of a glass of new milk. Rest five 
minutes; drink; and take a third of a glass of new milk. Dur¬ 
ing the afternoon drink as much water as you crave. 

THIRD NEW MEAL.—At about six o’clock in the after¬ 
noon, repeat the noon meal in exactly the same way prescribed 
above. During the evening drink as much water as you desire. 
This first day after fasting consists of healing foods. 

CAUTION.—If your stomach is badly congested the use of 
healing foods may produce temporary ill-feeling, and possibly 
dizziness or unpleasant sensations. This is overcome by drink¬ 
ing water freely just before taking the raw eggs. 

THE THIRD STEP 

REPAIRING THE WASTED PARTS.—The second day 
after the fast is to consist of new material that is specially de¬ 
signed to carry on a system of repair in a perfect manner. 
This requires some good round steak that is lean, sweet and 
fresh. 


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Complete Life Building 

FOURTH NEW MEAL.—This is the breakfast on the second 
day after the fast. Take, on the day before, a few pounds of 
lean round steak, and put them in a glass jar, adding a cupful 
of cold water for every pound of meat. This will be put in the 
glass jar. Now set the jar in a kettle of water on the back of 
the stove where it will slowly heat but not boil. Let it remain 
for an hour or two. Then strain the contents of the jar, and 
press the meat in a lemon squeezer to get all the juice out. Be¬ 
fore it begins to heat, add some bay leaves to flavor it. When 
ready to use, add plenty of salt, and the least bit of pepper. 
For the Fourth New Meal which will be the breakfast on the 
second day after the fast day, heat this beef tea, but not hot 
enough to reach the boiling point. Have some old bread that 
is two or more days old; toast this to a light brown, cut in 
small cubes, and drop in a big bowl of the beef tea, having the 
latter hot and well seasoned. Eat slowly, turning over the 
bread and the beef tea in the mouth. 

FIFTH NEW MEAL.—On the noon of the second day after 
the day of fasting, repeat the Fourth New Meal; wait ten 
minutes; then repeat the Second New Meal, which was the 
dinner of the first day after the fast. 

SIXTH NEW MEAL.—This is the evening meal of the sec¬ 
ond day after the day of fasting. Repeat the Fourth New Meal. 

SEVENTH NEW MEAL.—This is the breakfast of the third 
day after the day of fasting. Get a pound or two of fresh 
round steak. With a sharp knife scrape across the grain until 
all the pulp is removed from the fibres. Put this about a third 
of an inch thick on a large slice of old bread; then add salt to 
taste, and the least bit of black pepper. Put in a hot oven until 
it is hot but not changed in color. Eat slowly. 

EIGHTH NEW MEAL.—This is the dinner of the third day 
after the day of fasting. Repeat the Fourth New Meal; wait 
ten minutes; then repeat the Seventh New Meal. 

NINTH NEW MEAL.—This is the supper of the third day 
after the day of fasting. Repeat the Eighth New Meal. 

THE FOURTH STEP 

THE PERMANENT MEALS.—On the morning of the fourth 
day after the day of fasting, begin the regular and permanent 


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meals. They should for one month be based solely on the foods 
in the ONE HOUR CLASS which have been elaborately de¬ 
scribed in a previous Section of this book. At the end of the 
month, it will then be allowable to add any two foods from the 
TWO HOUR CLASS, always remembering to adhere at the 
same time to those of the ONE HOUR CLASS. Your future 
eating is to be confined wholly to the TRUE FOODS. Do not 
blend in the same meal the foods that do not digest at about 
the same time. The test is in the disposition of the stomach 
and intestines to collect gas or wind, which is the same thing. 
That is always an indication of danger. Jake the warning and 
act upon it. 

Adopt also, as far as possible, the great principle of one-food 
at a meal. We know that you cannot do this when someone else 
cooks the meals. 

jRule 82 .—Variations in the foods of the- ONE HOUR CLASS 
and TWO HOUR CLASS may be found and used to advantage. 

Thus we know of strong men who make a whole meal of noth¬ 
ing but shredded wheat and cream; and of others who find 
strength in puffed rice and also in puffed wheat. Unpolished 
rice is coming into the market; and when it does, it will be a 
blessing to humanity; for ordinary rice is a weak and unbal¬ 
anced food unless eaten with plenty of milk. Insist on getting 
unpolished rice. If your dealers do not carry it, apply through 
the Parcels Post for it in the great cities; but keep asking for 
it until you get it. Then that kind of rice that is almost the sole 
food of the warlike Japs, will prove one of the best forms of 
food that you can find. 

Rule 83 .—Steps that are revolutionary in eating can be taken 
gradually and bring about the results desired. 

If you are ordering your meals by the card, you are at liberty 
to order what you wish and as much as you wish. Thus we 
know of reporters who will order two dishes of oatmeal at a 
restaurant, and nothing else. We know of others who make 
arrangements to get double-size dishes of one kind of food, in¬ 
stead of ordering a number of things. 

In a hotel where you pay for a number of courses, you do not 
feel like omitting many; it seems bad business policy to pay for 
a thing that you do not eat. In such case you have no way out 
of the difficulty. 


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In a boarding house, unless you can make some arrangement 
with the lady who controls the table, it is probable that you 
have no means of escape from the many kinds of food that are 
hurtful. The scant quantities at best, arouse in you a degree 
of hunger that will not permit you to select your food; you are 
glad to get something to eat. 

In your home, if you employ a cook, you cannot very well 
lighten her burdens by a simple diet. 

If your wife cooks for you, she will not be pleased to be told 
that her mixtures are not the best for health. Most men find 
it harder to convert their wives to plain cooking and simple 
eating, than to revolutionize a paid cook. If you are a woman, 
and cook for your husband, or employ a woman to do that work, 
your husband will not like any curtailment in his eating; he 
prefers variety to health. It may happen that both husband 
and wife are converted to the truth at about the same time, in 
which case they may pull together in saving ninety percent of 
the labor of house-keeping and ninety percent of the cost of 
living. But heaven has not yet come on earth, and the proba¬ 
bility is that you will be compelled to work out your health 
and safety without the aid of any member of your household. 

In your honest desire to get well and to stay well, in your 
fight against the encroachments of disease which you know very 
well will soon fell you, in your effort to bring your habits 
closer to the intentions of nature and the purposes of the Cre¬ 
ator, in the midst of your progress towards the only sensible 
solution of the fearful problems of life and death at the present 
day, you will be called a crank. Those who do not say so out 
loud will think it. There has never been a revolution that 
brought untold blessings to humanity, but the common herd 
heaped abuse on the heads of the men and women who moved 
steadily onward to the new plane of existence. The common 
herd is not found in any one class; it is as often present in the 
gilded youth, the idle rich, and the thoughtless upper ranks, 
as in any other part of the human family. 

In taking the step that shall cause you to select your foods 
properly you will have on your side the following influences: 

1. The laws of Nature. 

2. The commands of the Creator. 

3. The dictates of common sense. 


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4. The exact needs of the human body. 

5. The attainment of perfect health. 

6. A life of real enjoyment. 

7. The mastery of old age when that comes, as come it must; 
all free from the loss of a single faculty; hale, hearty, and use¬ 
ful for many years beyond the span of life allotted to others. 

8. A feeling of security against all manner of sickness. 

9. Your own conscience. 

10. Superior mental and physical powers. 

Here are TEN influences that will be found on your side, 
working with you, helping you, if you have the courage to 
stand up for what is right. 

What are the influences that are to be counted against you in 
your fight for perfect health? Let us take an inventory: 

1. The shiftless cook who does not want to be told anything 
new. 

2. The indifferent housekeeper who has been brought up in the 
old ruts, like the Chinese, and who is insulted at the suggestion 
of making a change in her methods. 

3. The unthinking, thoughtless, don’t care classes, who prefer 
to suffer and drug themselves, instead of making an effort to get 
well and stay well. 

4. The doctors, surgeons, hospitals, druggists, medicine makers, 
undertakers and grave diggers, will have their income lessened 
by a general uprising of humanity on the side of better health. 

Here are ten influences in your favor; and four against you. 

Which side do you prefer? Are the TEN aids stronger in 
your life than the four opponents? If so, then, can you stand 
the quiet scoffs of the class that is associated with your four 
enemies ? 

Having chosen your company, the next thing to do is to go 
quietly about making the reform as far as you yourself will be 
involved. If you are in earnest, others will see it, inquire the 
cause, and join you very soon. That is the way all great move¬ 
ments have proceeded. 

Quiet streams, or those that make the least noise, are the 
deeper ones and bear greater burdens easily. You have no need 
of attracting attention to yourself. There will always be ways 
and means of accomplishing easily the things that you make up 
your mind to achieve. 


166 Complete Life Building 

If you cannot find the one-food diet that you prefer, lessen 
the variety at each meal to a few foods, always avoiding the 
things that you know are not the best for you. At a hotel in 
Boston several persons were eating only the plainer foods, and 
seemed to enjoy them; and another person who had witnessed 
them for several meals, approached one of the party and said: 
“ Pardon me, but may I inquire if you are Balstonites ? 1 ’ The 
answer was in the affirmative, and a friendship followed that 
was pleasing to all. The same thing has occurred many times 
among passengers in crossing the ocean; the manner of selecting 
food at the table was noticeable only to Balstonites; all others 
seeing nothing unusual. 

Do not try to make converts to the rules of common sense by 
arbitrary arguments; but rather look at the matter from the 
standpoint of the opposing party, and gradually bring about a 
change of opinion by gentle methods. 

At home do not set up a new regime in a sudden manner, as 
that only serves to antagonize your family. The better way is 
to omit the foods that you know you should not eat, and to eat 
more of the kinds that are suited to you. By this method you 
will, little by little, drift towards the one-food method. 

You will not find things at home convenient for the adoption 
of any new plan of eating or cooking. Bather than call for 
sweeping changes, it is better to accept things as you find them, 
and swing them gradually around to your methods. 

By using judgment you will be able to bring about a complete 
revolution in the community in which you live. 

THE NEW BODY 

When you have built a new body, keep it new. Do not let 
it get old. Experiments have been made for nearly fifty years 
for the purpose of acquiring new knowledge along this line. We 
know that the child needs more of certain minerals than the 
adult who has attained his growth; by more we mean a greater 
proportion in the same quantity of food. 

In this book there are One Hundred Buies which we have 
scattered along its pages as they apply to the teachings therein. 
As far as you are interested in these Buies it is a good idea to 


Nature’s Doctors 167 

memorize them for ready application, in your own life. A few 
more will finish the code: 

Buie 84. —In the absence of mineral matter the body would be 
like jelly-fish. 

Buie 85. —The growing child is large or small in body accord¬ 
ing as the supply of mineral matter is great or little in the food. 

Buie 86. —The size of the child at birth depends on the growth 
of the bones prior to that event; and the growth of bones de¬ 
pends on the amount of mineral matter in the diet of the mother. 

Buie 87. —Stunted children have lacked a sufficient supply of 
mineral matter in the first year or more of life. 

Buie 88. —Rickets and similar bone diseases are caused by the 
lack of mineral matter in the diet of the child that has begun 
to grow to normal or average size. 

Buie 89. —Where babes and young children have been given 
food that contained an unusually large proportion of mineral 
matter, the body has grown of unusual size; as size is merely 
bigness of bone structure. 

Buie 90 .—When growth of the body is attained at the end 
of youth, the supply of mineral matter should be at once les¬ 
sened. Some persons go on growing until they are thirty or 
forty years of age. 

Buie 91. —There comes a time when the body will cease to add 
to its size, and its excess of mineral matter then begins to clog 
the arteries. 

Buie 92. —Mineral matter when it clogs the arteries, becomes 
a distinct barrier to the operations of life. 

Buie 93. —Stony deposits in the body not only cause pain, 
but lead to breakdown. 

Buie 94. —The veins and blood vessels of the heart, as well as 
its arteries, become in time coated with a thin deposit of lime 
and other mineral matter, which prevents the repair of the 
tissue, and results in a thinness of the parts that may at any 
time give way. It is in this manner that sudden death from 
heart disease often occurs. 

Buie 95. —The blood passages leading to the brain are like¬ 
wise clogged and made thin and brittle; and give way easily 
under any strain or pressure in the circulation; causing death 
from apoplexy more readily. 

j Rule 96. —All through the finer veins of the brain itself this 


168 


Complete Life Building 

mineral clogging and coating is taking place, hardening the 
tissue and lessening the flexibility of that organ. Memory is 
impaired, the power to think is weakened, and new ideas are 
never received. All beliefs except those of earlier years, are 
either denied or else enter only at the shallow parts of the brain. 

Buie 97 .—The fine microscopic glands under the skin, millions 
upon millions in number, are also clogged and stiffened with this 
excess of mineral matter, and the skin takes on the hue of age, 
while its flexibility and softness are decreased. Wrinkles come 
naturally into the face, and on the hands. 

Buie 98 .—By the same clogging which enters into all tissue 
and membranes, the stomach hardens and is no longer able to 
digest animal fats. 

Buie 99 .—The nerves and ganglia, or storage centers of vital¬ 
ity, are deprived of their flexibility, and cannot vibrate the 
feelings and powers of life as well as formerly. 

Buie 100 .—When the supply of mineral matter is reduced to 
equal the demands of the body for bone repairs; when the foods 
are selected and prepared to meet the needs of life; and when 
the methods of living are simple, reasonable and in harmony 
with the plain laws of nature; then old age as a period of 
decrepitude, weakness, helplessness and loss of faculties, is an 
ABSOLUTE IMPOSSIBILITY. 

The foregoing rules tell their own story. Countless experi¬ 
ments involving more than two hundred thousand cases, con¬ 
tinued through many years, confirm each and every one of these 
rules. It is true that some scientists claim to have discovered 
the germ that causes old age; but the destruction of that germ 
does not take the coating off the tissue or out of the veins, nor 
prevent the hardening of the arteries. On the other hand, the 
simple process of lessening the amount of mineral matter in 
the food does in fact overcome the old age tendency. 

1. Old beef, old mutton, old fowl, and old fish; meaning the 
meat from animals and fish that have lived to grow to maturity, 
are one of the causes of old age deposits in the body. The rea¬ 
son is plain. When animal life is growing, all the mineral mat¬ 
ter goes to make bones, and we do not eat the bones. When 
growth has been attained, the mineral matter then lodges in the 
tissue, and that is what we eat. Hence we store an excess of 
mineral matter from matured animal life, into our own bodies. 


Nature’s Doctors 


169 


We transfer the fault from one life to another, which is our own. 

2. Hard water is the most prolific cause of old age deposits. 
Any person who has seen the lining of a kettle in which hard 
water has been boiled, knows what is meant. 

3. Mineral matter from baking powders, and from food adul¬ 
terations and preservatives, cause old age deposits. 

4. Mineral matter from medicines, either in the form of pow¬ 
der, pills or liquid, are a prolific cause of old age deposits. 

5. Soups, broths, boiled dinners, boiled water, tea and coffee, 
are all prolific causes of old age deposits. 

6. Vegetables and roots that have matured are also causes of 
old age deposits. 

The remedy is to be found in the following methods: 

1. All meats, fowl and fish you eat should be from unmatured 
life. Veal, steer, chicken, half grown fish and game or fowl, 
lamb, and similar kinds are free from mineral matter, as they 
have not yet achieved their growth and become charged with 
such deposits. 

2. Secure either distilled water, rain water, fresh spring water, 
or any very soft water to drink. 

3. Let all medicines alone as much as possible; few if any 
are necessary. 

4. Select your foods so as to avoid those that are charged with 
adulterations and preservatives. Avoid baking powder cooking. 

5. Eat only those vegetables that are young. 

6. Stop using long boiled water, especially in drinks and food. 

7. Make use of old age SOLVENTS, or things that dissolve 
the mineral matter in the body. 

Nature will not do for man what he can do for himself. He 
must find out for himself what to do. When he is helpless, 
instinct saves him; after that he is the maker of his own life 
and safety. 

But nature has set up laws and processes that man is to learn 
how to use. The most wonderful of all laws next to gravity, is 
that of distillation. It is intended to separate the good from 
the bad. Distillation occurs in four forms: Vapor, Steam, 
Fruits, and Young Vegetables. 

Vapor is the pure part of the ocean or other body of water 
that rises to the clouds, and is discharged to the earth again in 
the form of rain; the latter being the pure part of the water. 


170 


Complete Life Building 

Steam is the same thing as vapor, except that it is given into 
the hands of man to aid him. Man, by boiling any kind of 
water, no matter how bad, is able to set free the pure part in 
the form of steam, often by double distillation; then to con¬ 
dense the steam into water, and use it. What do you think of 
the prevailing custom of using the part that remains? 

Every part of steam that escapes from boiling water contains 
the pure portion of the water. The minerals, the poisons, and 
the dregs are in the part that remains after the steam has 
taken the good away. Many cooks let the kettle boil or simmer 
indefinitely so as to keep hot water at hand. They use the dregs 
in tea, in coffee, and in other ways. If at any time hot water 
is needed, the only sensible method is to put on fresh water, 
bring it to a boil, and then use it at once. Many women allow 
tea and coffee to cook or simmer all day long, adding more as 
they need it; and thus they are drinking dregs all the time. 

The worst habit of all is to cook meats and bones into soups. 
We called at a house some time ago in the morning, again at 
noon, and again late in the afternoon; and each time we saw a 
kettle of soup cooking in which a soup bone was confined. The 
woman had all day long been adding water as it boiled away, 
and kept the bone cooking in order to get the good of it. What 
she had was the condensed dregs of a great quantity of water, 
every particle of the pure portion of which had gone off in 
steam. This woman was aged beyond her years, looking twenty 
years older than she was. Some persons make beef tea by long 
boiling or simmering. Some cook boiled dinners by the same 
method. While the lid remains on the kettle, the vapor escapes 
all the time, and reduces the quantity of water as is well known. 

Men and women grow old faster than their years, when they 
take the dregs of boiled water in their systems. Families that 
use this form of cooking show their premature age. 

The vapor or steam of water, condensed and made palatable, 
is a solvent of old age deposits in the body. There is no reason 
why it should not be adopted as a drink. 

All mellow and sweet fruits that are juicy, are natural sol¬ 
vents of old age deposits. The strained juice of very sweet and 
mellow apples is excellent and effective if taken fresh made 
daily. But all fruits that are fully ripe serve the same pur¬ 
pose ; for nature distils her fluid in her fruits. 


BOOK TWO 


1. THE TRUE FOODS 

2. “ALL NATURE” CURES 

3. RALSTON REGIME 


NINTH SECTION 


WHAT TRUE FOODS DO 


OR THE FIRST TIME in the history of health re¬ 
search we present a list of the foods that exactly build 
the body in all its needs; that repair the waste per¬ 
fectly ; and replace the damaged parts with sound and 
whole structure. The cause of ninety-nine percent of 
all the ills of humanity is the poison set up by so-called foods 
that are not foods at all, or are part foods and part foreign 
matter; or a great excess of one kind. When the world ceases 
to use these things, then it is logical to assume that ninety-nine 
percent of all the ills of the world will disappear. 

And this assumption is correct. 

But it is impossible to stop using the things that have been 
called food unless we find the other things that are known to 
be true food. And this has now been done. In another chap¬ 
ter you will be given a full description and list of all the true 
foods that are suited to your needs. It is our purpose in this 
place to show the value and usefulness of such foods. 

If you will try to have patience while we state a few prin¬ 
ciples, you will the better appreciate what is further said: 

1. When a person eats only the true foods the revolution in 
the health of the body is so marvelous and complete that it seems 
difficult to understand. 



171 





172 


Complete Life Building 

2. When most of the foods eaten are the true foods, nature 
takes care of the rest and throws them off as slight poisons; 
thus giving to every one a good margin of safety against abuse. 
It is very rare that sickness ensues. 

3. It has been proved thousands of times that when a person 
eats true foods as just stated, with some of the false foods, it 
is possible to cure chronic maladies, but the cure is much slower 
than if all the diet were to consist of the true foods. This mar¬ 
gin of safety, therefore, which nature provides against a certain 
amount of abuse, is even curative. 

4. Any person who has recovered from an acute illness, who 
begins on nothing but true foods, rebuilds a new and perfect 
body; and this being so, it follows, as has been abundantly 
proved, that a well person will gradually rebuild a new and per¬ 
fect body by gradually changing from the false foods to the true. 

5. When more than half of the foods are false, and less than 
half are true, there is a struggle between sickness and health 
that fluctuates with the influence of other causes, such as pure 
air, hard work, and other helps to throw off the poisons; but 
there is also a resort to pills, drugs, medicines, doctors, stimu¬ 
lants, nerve-easers, and other barbarisms, all of which disap¬ 
pear when the balance comes again in favor of the true foods. 

6. If less than half of the foods taken are true foods, the 
nerves suffer constant poisoning which results in great unrest 
and irritability at times, especially if anything goes wrong or 
depresses. Insanity has been traced often to the excess of false 
foods that cause nerve irritability; for this erratic action al¬ 
ways precedes one form of insanity. In fact, excessive irrita¬ 
bility long continued has but one end, which is mental break¬ 
down and loss of control of oneself; and the false foods are 
always setting up this irritability. 

7. Cravings of all kinds are due to the poisons of false food 
in the system. Remove the false foods and you remove all 
cravings. The only notable exception is the craving for ciga¬ 
rettes and for drugs that attends every victim of syphilis either 
inherited as a blood taint, or acquired by criminal act, or as 
a result of such act. But even this craving is lessened and 
overcome when true foods are adopted wholly in place of the 
false foods. 

8. When the proportion of false foods is fully three-fourths 


Nature’s Doctors 


173 


of all that is eaten by a person, such person is an invalid, with 
either chronic or acute disease. Influenza, the grippe, heavy 
colds, headaches, neuritis, rheumatism, dropsy, neuralgia, threats 
of impending collapse, liver disorders, kidneys troubles, heart 
weakness, lung dangers or something else, will be the fruit of 
such poisons. 

9. The first thing the doctor does is to cut out the bad diet. 
If the victim tries to doctor himself, he will spend much of his 
income on drugs, pills and medicines, and at the same time he 
will not know enough to make his food sensible. He goes along 
in his ignorance burning up what vitality he did possess, until 
the undertaker has charge of him. If he calls in a doctor, he 
will be compelled to bring an end to his false eating until the 
doctor tells him to go it again; and either he has learned a 
lesson, or has not. Probably not. He belongs to the almost 
universal class who never had a sick day in his life, if his state¬ 
ment is to be believed; but who is abnormally and morbidly out 
of condition. 

10. Many people do not know what the doctor knows, that 
no sick person ever got well by the use of medicines. All the 
latter can do is to bridge over one poison by another. Neu¬ 
trality follows, as one enemy wipes out the other enemy. A 
king was threatened by a foreign foe on the north, and by an¬ 
other foreign foe on the south; he saved himself by bringing 
the two enemies together; they annihilated each other, while 
his army rested. When the good doctor has accomplished this 
in the sick man, he always says, and you have heard him many 
times say, “Now Nature will do the rest.” The false foods 
bring in the poisons; the doctor attacks them with his pet 
poisons: they are annihilated; and Nature does the rest. But 
she will not do the rest unless the patient stops filling up again 
on the poisons of the false foods. 

11. There is no cure to-day for tuberculosis except the true 
foods. There is no cure for diabetes except the true foods. 
There is no cure for kidney troubles except the true foods. The 
same is true in stomach, heart, liver, nervous, mental and all 
blood maladies. 

12. A man is shot through the brain and dies. If a portion 
of his lungs be taken from the body and placed in cold storage 
for months, and then given body warmth and fed with blood 


174 


Complete Life Building 

made by the true foods, the lungs will begin to take on life 
again as far as it is possible for a piece to do so. Each cell 
of the tissue will build a new cell; and each new one will carry 
on the same work. 

13. If from the same man a part of the kidney be taken and 
used at once or after it has been in cold storage for any length 
of time not too great, if it be given blood fed on the true foods, 
it will not only build new kidney structure of a perfect kind, 
but will also take on the functions of the kidney as far as the 
small piece can do so. It grows, throbs and lives as it would 
have done if it had remained in its place in the live body of 
the man. 

14. The cells of a piece of bone fed in the same manner began 
to build new bone material. They did not make kidney or lung 
material; they obeyed the secret law of Nature that each part 
looks after the making of its own kind. If only a general mass 
of cells are present they will make nothing but cells; but iwhen 
these cells belong to some organ, they build that organ. 

15. In making skin the same law held good. A piece of new 
skin, or of a part that had been kept in cold storage six months, 
did exactly the work expected; its cells drew nutrition from 
the blood and more skin was the result. It did not make bone, 
it did not make kidney, it did not make lungs; it made only 
skin. Why? Because the cells of the original piece of skin 
were charged by Nature with the duty of making more of it¬ 
self. In performing this duty, it did not bungle the work. All 
the intricate system of pumps, lace tissue, engines to drive off 
the excretions, all were perfectly made. A piece of scalp sim¬ 
ilarly treated and fed, set up the task of weaving more scalp. 
But scalp cells would not make hair cells; yet the latter, if 
alive, would make more of their own kind. 

16. It is strange that a piece of liver wholly separated for 
months from the body, will when given blood that was fed on 
the true foods, proceed to build more new tissue that belongs 
only to the liver; and the strangest part of it all is that such 
new piece will, as far as it is constructed, try to carry on 
the functions of its kind. 

17. But the surprise of all things in these experiments is 
that a piece of still heart that has been kept for months in 
cold storage, will begin to BEAT when given warmth and 


Nature’s Doctors 


175 


blood fed on the true foods. It is only a piece, bear in mind. 
What is there in this bit of heart that orders it to start beating ? 

Other parts of the body showed the operation of the same 
law; each part making more of its own kind. But when any 
of the false foods were given, then the part DIED. 

Fried foods, pastry, pickles, cranberries, Saratoga chips, 
breakfast food crisps, sausages, lard, pork, ham, tea, coffee, 
chocolate, lobster, bacon, Boston baked beans, cucumbers, rad¬ 
ishes, tomatoes, new bread, marmalade, dried currants, citron, 
spices, rinds of oranges or lemons, bran hulls, pieplant, pearl 
tapioca, crabs, terrapin, oysters, sweet potatoes, gooseberries, 
catsup, gelatin, viscera, coconut, com stalk juice and similar 
lines of poison foods whether alone or in combination, caused 
instant death to the cell growth; and human life is wholly made 
up of cell growth as far as the body, brain, nerves and organs 
are concerned. 

So the voice of civilization says: If these things will kill, 
why eat them? On the other hand, if the TRUE FOODS will 
add new life to old life, why not adopt them as your regular 
basis of health? 

The only value that can be placed on the foregoing experi¬ 
ments is to show that only pure blood can start life anew in 
these parts of the body. 

If such parts can be made to grow into a healthy structure 
when they are separated from a complete organism like the 
body of man, why should they not go on with the same good 
work when the man is alive and they are all in place ? This in¬ 
quiry was answered by many thousands of experiments, and 
the answer was always the same: The true foods made new 
and perfect growth; the false foods injured the various parts 
of the body and caused sickness and disease. 

It is only very recently that governments have discovered 
that all sickness and disease, with few exceptions, can be traced 
to wrong foods or lack of right foods. Certain troubles are 
known to be due to shortage of some fc needed food elements. 

Beri-beri is one of the shortage diseases; and is so deadly 
when it runs in epidemic form that whole nations become af¬ 
flicted ; yet there is no known cure for it but to supply the food 
elements that are lacking; and this supply always, in every case, 


176 Complete Life Building 

without a single exception, brings about a cure, and a complete 
cure. 

Pellagra for years defied all government efforts to find its 
cause; and you will see in the reports many theories as to what 
gave rise to this epidemic. Now it is known to a certainty that 
shortage of needed food elements is its only cause; and when a 
complete supply is given the patient, the cure is sure and perfect. 

Rickets which has prevailed for generations among children, 
leading to deformities through softening of the bones, was easily 
proved to be due to shortage of some food elements. Medicines 
never helped it. No wisdom of a Solomon in the medical pro¬ 
fession could effect a cure until tests showed decisively that lack 
of certain food elements was the sole cause, and the supply of 
a complete or what we call a true food was the only cure. 

Blood disorders of all kinds are due to the same foundation 
cause except in venereal foulness. Scurvy is known to-day as 
the result of nothing more or less than lack of proper food; in 
fact that much about it has been known for generations. 

Rheumatism is due in ninety-five cases out of a hundred to 
certain false foods; in a few cases it is due to diseased tonsils, 
bad teeth or growths in the throat or nose, but these instances 
are not many, and all such lesser causes were themselves due 
to wrong foods in the beginning. No tonsils are unhealthy or 
abnormal unless they have been made so by a false diet. You 
may select, if you will at random, ten thousand cases of rheu¬ 
matism from the mildest to the most painful; and you can shut 
your eyes to all of them as individuals; then prescribe for them 
a year of the true foods; and any case you do not cure in that 
way will be very exceptional. To show what we mean, in the 
course of a certain period of time, one after another there came 
to our attention one hundred requests to help people who were 
suffering from chronic rheumatism. In case number one we 
sent a list of the true foods and told the patient to eat only 
that diet for one year; we did not ask for details; we just shut 
our eyes as it were and hit blindly,* but we asked for reports 
from month to month; the victim began to get better in a few 
weeks and was all well long before the year was gone. Each 
one of the hundred cases we treated in the same way; our pur¬ 
pose being to try out our claim that the true foods will effect a 
cure. In not a single case did the malady last more than ten 


Nature’s Doctors 


177 


weeks. But we have known for many years that rheumatism 
is caused by certain foods, and can be cured by a change in the 
diet. 

When all the elements required by the body are present in 
the daily food, except the one required by the hair, all the rest 
of the body will be well except the hair; that will slowly begin 
to fall out, or get thin and lose its vitality. 

By denying the body certain bone making foods and at the 
same time* supplying the hair making element, you can cause 
rickets while you are actually helping the hair to grow ; but by 
reversing the foods, you can cure the rickets but weaken the 
growth of hair. By supplying ALL the needed elements you 
can grow hair abundantly and prevent the rickets, and every¬ 
thing else will be prevented that is called disease. 

The skin can be woven of nearly all its elements, but it will 
not be a perfect skin; just as the carpet weaver, by omitting one 
or more of his threads will produce a defective carpet. There 
is a difference between the use of false foods and the lack of 
true foods. If you possess the latter but mix them with too 
great a proportion of the false foods, you will weave skin dis¬ 
ease, of which there are many kinds. A familiar illustration 
is the disorder known as the hives, or skin blotches that are very 
unpleasant; strawberries are a false food; no matter how much 
of the true foods you eat, if you indulge in too many straw¬ 
berries, you may have the hives, because they are a poison. 
When you omit this fruit for a few days, the hives will dis¬ 
appear ; when you again eat this fruit, the hives will come; thus 
you may play hide and seek with strawberries and find the 
hives popping in and out. The same is true of other false foods. 
Pork, lard, or any swine product may give you visitors known 
as boils and carbuncles. 

But let us look at the difference between the use of false 
foods and the lack of true kinds. If you have all the food sup¬ 
ply your body requires except one or more of the elements 
needed to weave perfect skin, you will find yourself wrinkled 
many years in advance of old age; because some of the threads 
required to weave the skin have been omitted in the food. 

When you eat the true foods, your skin will be complete; it 
will not wrinkle easily, unless you squint your face as does the 
sea captain when he is guiding his ship through the raging 


178 


Complete Life Building 

gales. Skin is leather and it may be given almost any kind of 
a finish that the machine is set to execute. The habit of wrin¬ 
kling the face constantly is not a nice one; but apart from that 
it will wrinkle of itself if certain food elements are lacking. 

On one occasion we saw some young folks in their teens whose 
faces were old because of their many wrinkles. On several 
other occasions we met persons in the twenties, and some in 
the thirties, who had the faces of aged people. These phenomena 
were so interesting that we took the time to investigate their 
diet; and the result was the same in every case: They were 
omitting in their foods every day some of the elements needed 
to make perfect skin. 

CRAVINGS furnish a still more interesting line of study. 
There are all kinds of cravings. Those of the prospective mother 
are for certain things to eat in nine cases out of ten; and an 
examination of the diet always shows what food elements are 
lacking. Supply these, and you will bring an end to the spe¬ 
cial desires. 

False foods set up inflammation of the stomach and alimen¬ 
tary canal; the true foods cure this inflammation. But it is 
this irritated condition that causes the craving for narcotics and 
stimulants; not only alcoholic, but all other kinds including tea 
and coffee, drugs, tobacco and other things which are not only 
wholly devoid of food values, but are deeper enemies of life 
than the things they are employed to offset. We have seen and 
known of many thousands of cases where the TRUE FOODS 
have fully combated this inflammation, and have always driven 
out the CRAVINGS. Most people are desirous of overcoming 
such evil habits; they are willing to be cured in a natural way; 
but they positively refuse to let go the narcotics and stimulants 
while they remain victims of the false foods that keep the in¬ 
flammation acute and active. And we do not blame them. 

THE ANGELIC WIFE who has taken to herself a husband 
of docile temper, of gentle speech and loving manner, finds the 
road to his heart in cooking him a good meal. She gives him 
corn crisps, Saratoga chips, fried bacon, pastry, new bread, 
doughnuts, fried eggs and ham, and like things, and they please 
his palate while they are passing it. Not one of these and other 
similar foods can be properly digested. They lie in his stom¬ 
ach where they set up torments; they produce a progeny of 


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179 


small but acutely active fiends that eat and tear and rasp the 
delicately sensitive lining of the stomach, from which organ 
they climb up into his throat and head and brain. There is no 
irritation so hard to control as that which follows blind indi¬ 
gestion, which is not located in the stomach so much as in the 
general nervous system. Profanity is one of its first offspring. 
Suppressed profanity is the polite form of outwardly trying to 
look and speak kindly to the wife when she asks: “Did my 
love like his dinner? Would he like such a dinner every day?” 
What he says inwardly depends on how long he has been 
married. 

The irritated brain cannot always frame a gentle answer; a 
quick retort follows; and the first quarrel has been inaugurated, 
due to blind indigestion. This is the cause of ninety-nine per¬ 
cent of all domestic friction. What is known as incompatibility 
of temperament is nothing more than the uncovering of the 
real self through the acid test of blind indigestion. We have 
seen a man eat a dinner of lard products, fried stuff, pastry 
and other false foods, and have heard him indulge in pro¬ 
fanity all the afternoon following the meal; while the same 
man, when he had a dinner of digestible foods, would be good 
natured and gentle the remainder of the day. We saw another 
man who had eaten an indigestible dinner of false foods, abuse 
his fellow beings, kick a dog, and pound a boy; the same man 
on occasions following a properly prepared meal, was of exactly 
the opposite disposition. He admitted his bad temper and in¬ 
ability to control it when he had indigestion. From a perfectly 
sane mind his irritability produced one that in time became in¬ 
sane. And here is one of the frequent causes of mental break¬ 
down. They say that a drop of water falling constantly on 
one spot on the head will cause insanity. They say that think¬ 
ing of one subject too much, will do the same thing. But it is 
known that constantly recurring indigestion, due to eating false 
foods, or any foods that are wrongly cooked, is the cause of 
many suicides through intensified irritability; and the man or 
woman who slays self is always insane. 

The TRUE FOODS prevent these disasters. 

If you have any love for humanity, if you wish to make im¬ 
possible the desire for self-destruction, if you wish to help that 
man rise out of his hell who is broken by temptations and crav- 


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Complete Life Building 

ings that he cannot control, if you wish to bring hopefulness 
into sad and despondent lives, then talk and teach and preach 
the new doctrine of the TRUE FOODS to every one and every¬ 
where so that their use may become universal. 

No man can be religious with an inflamed stomach. No man 
can be moral with an inflamed stomach. No man can be a 
loving husband or father with an inflamed stomach. No man 
can see clearly, think clearly or act clearly with an inflamed 
stomach. No man can possess pure blood, healthy organs or a 
sound body with an inflamed stomach. No man with an in¬ 
flamed stomach can control his passions, his feelings, his crav¬ 
ings, his temptations or his habits. 

It is one of the few maladies that are spreading their dangers, 
while science is lessening the majority of the others. 

The remedy is simple; it consists in being One Hundred Per¬ 
cent Right in Food Selection, by using the TRUE FOODS. 

But as the human mind is not by any means One Hundred 
Percent Civilized it is not yet able to grasp this great fact. 

Let us hope, however, that with YOU it is different. The 
fact that YOU have carefully read these pages thus far, in¬ 
dicates that YOU are to become one of the great foundation 
units of a better civilization. 

The brain is a much more delicate organ than is supposed. 
The process of thinking depends on the fluids that flow through 
the meninges or linings that surround the brain. Perfect think¬ 
ing is perfect civilization. But perfect thinking is impossible 
unless the meninges or brain membranes are perfectly normal, 
or free from all congestion. As almost every stomach is con¬ 
gested, and as such congestion travels fast to the passages lead¬ 
ing to the brain, it is always true that every irritating meal 
produces an abnormal condition of the brain membranes. False 
foods and poisons from bad cooking make perfect thinking im¬ 
possible; and these influences in excess lead to temporary in¬ 
sanity which is the next step beyond irritability. Hence there 
can never be perfect brain action until the diet consists solely 
of the TRUE FOODS; and there can never be perfect civiliza¬ 
tion until there is perfect brain action. When the process of 
thinking is defective or erratic all human conduct is defective 
and erratic; and the world is full of the consequences of this 
lack of normal brain health. 



TENTH SECTION 


“ALL NATURE” CURES 

1 ‘1^ ATURE IS THE LIVING PULSE of the Creator 
throbbing in the plant kingdom of this earth out 
Wl of which has emerged the higher kingdom of which 
>^p man is the head. Until man came into control of 
some of the vital energies of the plant kingdom, the 
responsibility was solely with the Creator. Since man was per¬ 
mitted to rule life below him, the responsibility has been shifted, 
and the results do not as yet reach the same standard of value 
that they will some day, or that they would have done had his 
authority been delayed a few thousand centuries. 

Man’s failure to know Nature, and his interference with her 
plans, is the sole cause of all the sickness in the world, with its 
train of disasters longer and wider than the tail of the giant 
comet. By that failure man has fed his body with poisons; and 
to-day more than ninety percent of all his food is poison. His 
attempt to drive out these evils has reached no higher level 
than the introduction of poison pills to physic out the danger; 
the use of poison medicines to counteract one poison by another; 
the employment of the knife to cut out localized poisons; and 
sometimes a resort to the practice of fasting in the hope that 
the poisons will leave by the wasting away of the body and its 
contents. But all methods tend to one and the same end. 

A ray of light heralded the dawn of a new morning sometime 
ago when a great doctor, after driving out poisons from the sys¬ 
tem of his most noted patient, said, 4 'Now you are as clean as 

181 




















182 


Complete Life Building 

medicines can make you. Let Nature do the rest.” Since then 
all doctors have said the same thing, “Let Nature do the rest.” 
They are saying it to-day. And what is more important every 
intelligent doctor keeps on hand lists of the foods that will give 
Nature the chance to do the rest. 

Then when the patient is well, he starts all over again filling 
up his body with the same kinds of food that are ninety percent 
unfit for him. It is like removing the soil from a very dirty car¬ 
pet with a vacuum cleaner and when the carpet is in good con¬ 
dition, emptying the dirt back on it. The Ralston Method is 
this: Let Nature do it all; and when the body is cleaned let 
Nature keep on doing it all. 

Are you able to grasp the fact that human life, barring acci¬ 
dent, can be prolonged indefinitely by the use of the TRUE 
FOODS ? 

Let us go on with this work and see where it leads. 

There are TWO CLASSES of Ralstonites: 

CLASS ONE:—Those who are well and wish to remain well. 

CLASS TWO:—Those who are not well, but who wish to get 
well and enter CLASS ONE. 

For both these classes, and especially the second, this Section 
of the present book is a giant fund of knowledge, all compre¬ 
hensive in its helpfulness, and a never-failing Guide as long 
as life shall last. We will list the maladies that command 
attention: 

ACUTE INDIGESTION.—This quickly acting danger slays 
its thousands every year. It is so clearly the result of gases 
freed by poisons in the stomach that the cause and cure are self- 
evident. Adopt the TRUE FOODS. 

ALCOHOLISM.—The majority of men who suffer from this 
disease are sincerely desirous of finding a cure for it. Let us 
first ascertain the 

CAUSE of alcoholism: It has been proved to be a craving 
set up by the congestion of the lining of the stomach and of 
the membrane lining the alimentary canal. This congestion, 
while subsequently due to the inflammatory action of the alco¬ 
hol itself, had its origin in a diet consisting of some of the fol¬ 
lowing foods, though not necessarily all of them or any great 
number of them. Any one such article would do its evil work; 

Pork, lard, bacon, sausage, cheese, crullers, doughnuts, pastry. 


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183 


new bread, corn crisps, breakfast food crisps, fried potatoes, 
chips, fried ham, fried meats of any kind, fried fish, fried oys¬ 
ters, fried egg plant, fried eggs, tea, baked beans, mincemeat, 
clams, lobster, suet, goose, turnips, cabbage, radishes, cranberries, 
peppers, cucumbers, pickles, vinegar, catsup, peanuts, peanut 
butter, spices, fruit cake, dried currants, gelatine and coconut. 

The test is this: If a person has an actual craving for alco¬ 
holic drink, he is suffering from congestion as stated. Any one 
of the foods or articles in the above list will keep alive the fire 
of that congestion. To effect a cure, ALL the foregoing things 
should be avoided. There are the TRUE FOODS LEFT from 
which a selection can be made; and their use tends to cure the 
congestion. When that has disappeared, all craving will cease, 
and the sufferer will not under any temptation touch liquor. 
This is no idle dream; but a fact that has been proved in fifty 
years of tests. 

APOPLEXY.—In addition to any of the foods or articles 
mentioned in the list under Alcoholism, avoid coffee if you are 
subject to dizziness and fullness of blood. The TRUE FOODS 
all tend to effect a cure in cases that are curable; while they 
will always prevent an attack. This whole book of Life Build¬ 
ing shows the kind of way to live to avoid this danger. 

APPENDICITIS.—The intestines are lined by a membrane 
the surface of which covers the interior; and a part of this sur¬ 
face covers the opening to a small worm shaped appendage at 
the lower right side of the abdomen. This appendage has no 
use, and is a needless source of danger, unless it serves as a 
warning to humanity to use judgment and good sense in food 
selection. It is almost always preceded by constipation; and 
there is a general understanding among doctors that if the latter 
trouble can be averted, the more acute disaster can be avoided. 
More cases of appendicitis occur among travelers, and persons 
who board at hotels than among those who live at home; show¬ 
ing that the use of hotel cooking and foods may have something 
to do with the cause. It is also known that many of the pre¬ 
vailing kinds of baking powder tend to eat the lining from the 
interior of the intestines; and this exposes the opening to the 
appendix. The contents of the bowels get in and as there is no 
circulation there, the result is mortification and subsequent 
peritonitis, which is generally fatal. Preservatives in food eat 


184 Complete Life Building 

Off the lining; and the harsh action of Constipation is still more 
severe. The cure is to be found in avoiding these dangers, and 
in using only the TRUE FOODS. 

ASTHMA.—This very painful malady is the result in many 
cases of years of suffering from hay fever or rose cold; but may 
arise from a congested condition of the bronchial passages, and 
hence has its origin in the stomach. The lower throat and air 
passages to the lungs are lined with a very delicate covering 
under which are the most sensitive nerves. Injury to this 
covering such as occurs when congestion is present, exposes the 
nerves to irritation from the air that passes through them, and 
violent paroxysms follow. For immediate relief any reliable 
antiseptic salve should be placed on the back of the tongue and 
inhaled until it melts, while hot camphorated lard oil should 
be rubbed into the flesh on the outside. Raw whites of eggs 
held in the back of the mouth and inhaled very slowly to pre¬ 
vent them from getting into the lungs, but to allow the albumen 
to be absorbed by the injured membranes, tends to heal them. 

It will always be seen that a person who is subject to asthma 
will suffer more after a meal that sets up indigestion. Some 
of the best medical experts in this malady assert that all cases 
of asthma arise from a congested stomach. This arises from 
foods that irritate, and this irritation spreads both upward and 
downward. What is a slightly inflamed stomach travels into 
the food passage, and involves the breathing tubes, eventually 
reaching the throat. There is reason to believe that the founda¬ 
tion for all forms of sore throat and of colds, grippe and in¬ 
fluenza, has exactly this origin and the damaged surface of the 
membrane becomes a fertile soil for the invasion of germs. A 
famous doctor once said, “All colds start with an inflamed 
stomach. * * Of course the first cause is wrong foods; and hence 
the permanent cure must be the true foods. 

For the foods that cause asthma, see the discussion of PRO¬ 
FANITY later on in this Section. 

BLOOD PRESSURE.—Almost all doctors advise their 
patients to have their blood pressure tested, at five dollars or 
more per test. Almost all persons who have occasion to consult 
doctors, are wise to the need of having their blood pressure 
tested. So common is this desire of late that country doctors 


Nature’s Doctors 


185 


who have no apparatus with which to make such test, will go 
through the pretence so well that their patrons will not know 
the difference until they have, the real thing done in the city. 
So many thousands of innocent sufferers are told they have high 
pressure when in fact they have low. 

High blood pressure may be the sign of heart disease; or of 
kidney disease; or of hardening of the arteries. In the first 
two classes of causes it may occur in youth or middle life; but 
in hardening of the arteries, it rarely occurs before advanced 
life or late in middle life. 

As a general rule it adds the figure one to the age of the 
person. 

Thus if the patient is twenty, the normal pressure should be 

120 . 

If sixty, then the normal may be 160. 

But this rule is not fixed. Most doctors regard the normal 
condition as between 120 to 130 for everybody under fifty years 
of age. The test is made by ascertaining the resistance of the 
blood vessels against a column of mercury; if this column is 
130 millimeters high, the blood pressure that resists it is said 
to be 130. If a person not yet in middle life was found to have 
160 resistance, the indication would be very dangerous; whereas 
one who was fifty or sixty years old might have such pressure 
and yet be in perfect health. 

The sudden ending of life through high pressure is always 
to be feared. Anger, or unusual exertion, or a very heavy meal 
may bring the climax most unexpectedly. Wherever a weak 
blood vessel is over-strained it may burst; if in the eye it will 
cause blindness; if in the brain, it may result in paralysis,, or 
apoplexy. The warning consists, when it comes at all, in a 
feeling of dizziness, and often in falling, or a tendency to fall. 

The treatment aims to avert the fatal attack. Avoid constipa¬ 
tion as this trouble almost always precedes the acute danger. 
Avoid also eating a heavy meal; better five meals a day that are 
light than one that is heavy. All meats, all soups, all broths 
made of meat should be omitted. Milk should be sipped, and 
bread toasted dipped in it. With the exceptions stated, depend 
solely on the TRUE FOODS. The tendency to high blood 
pressure may be reduced, and a cure finally reached in this way. 


186 


Complete Life Building 


BRIGHT’S DISEASE 

CAUSE.—It is very rare that a person under forty years of 
age is subject to this malady. It attacks those who are over 
forty, and is almost always incurable when advanced. It gives 
little or no warning. The first thing the victim knows is that 
the eyes are fast giving out, and then he is told he has less than 
six months to live. There are three kinds of Bright’s disease: 

1. The inflammatory disease. 

2. The gouty affection. 

3. The waxy condition. The latter is due to venereal diseases 
and is never curable. 

The gouty affection attends the presence of uric acid in the 
blood, and has its origin in the same cause as rheumatism, which 
see. In the kidneys, as in the liver, there is a change of tissue 
to a leathery growth which refuses to carry on the duties of the 
organ, and death ensues from gout or from urine poisoning. 

The inflammatory condition of Bright’s disease is curable in 
the first stage; and there need never be a failure to effect such 
a cure. But in the advanced stage, there is a breaking down of 
the heart, the blood vessels and various organs; then no hope 
remains. 

CURE.—The first thing that an expert asks of a patient is if 
he is addicted to the use of beer, wine or liquor; for alcohol is 
the surest enemy of the kidneys and liver. But there are kinds 
of Bright’s disease that may or may not be caused by alcohol. 
An excess of meat-eating may contribute to the danger. In 
countries where the people never eat meat, there has never been 
a case of Bright’s disease. Tea, coffee, charged waters, soda 
waters, and all alcoholic drinks are hurtful. All patent medi¬ 
cines do harm. Despite the claims of advertisements, there is no 
medicine that will decrease the malady. The only cures ever 
effected have come from dieting. 

The direct action of this disease is the accumulation of urine 
in the blood which goes to the brain, heart and all parts. The 
skin must be kept open. Perspiration is an advantage and 
necessary. This is secured by wearing porous under-clothing, 
heavier than is ordinarily needed. A hot water bath every 
night is important. The lungs carry off a great deal of the 
urine; and deep breathing is an aid in this respect. Any per- 


Nature’s Doctors 


187 


son who so desires, can easily double the volume of respiration 
as a habit. Of course, it is not natural for all urine to pass 
out through the lungs and skin, although part of it escapes in 
those channels even when the health is perfect. The kidneys 
are made to do that work. Under the experiments such as are 
referred to in an early Section of this book, a piece of kidney 
cut out and placed on a slide at once; or, after being in cold 
storage for any length of time, no matter how long; will, when 
freed from' its poisons and given perfect food, begin to grow 
healthy tissue and perform the function for which it was created. 

In desperate cases of Bright’s disease, resort at once to but¬ 
termilk, distilled water, and the escape of the urine through the 
lungs and skin, as already stated. Take no other food than 
buttermilk, and take all you can get into the stomach, always 
slowly. Put double work on the skin and lungs. Some cases 
have pulled through in this way. But if you have this malady 
and do escape death, adhere to the ONE-HOUR FOODS after 
you are well, for you may not retain your health long if you 
are again careless. 

It is better to prevent this malady than to try to cure it; so 
if you have fear of it, adopt the ONE-HOUR and TWO-HOUR 
FOODS now; and let tea, coffee, beer, wine and liquor alone. 

BOILS AND CARBUNCLES 

These afflictions are caused by outside germs or bacteria that 
f are pressed into the skin where they take root and spread rap¬ 
idly. But when they once secure fertile ground in the blood 
they spread to other parts of the body. This fertile blood is 
almost always the result of some part of pork or swine meat 
or products therefrom, such as lard, ham, bacon, and sausage. 
In a series of investigations of more than two hundred thou¬ 
sand cases of boils and carbuncles, there was not a single case 
where the victim had not eaten liberally something produced 
from swine. This fact warrants the conclusion that there is 
connection between this class of food and the maladies. 

But only one part of the trouble comes from such food; it 
furnishes the soil in which the germs take root and thrive. 

The germs themselves are very numerous and omnipresent. 
They are found on the skin of the body, and millions of people 


188 


Complete Life Building 

carry them, there who never have boils. They are also found on 
underclothing that has been worn longer than it should be; and 
on dirty clothes in general. They float on the dust in the air, 
but are ever seeking lodgment on the skin of the body. Yet 
they rarely get under the skin. 

They must be pushed under, or rubbed in, and there must 
be a slight break or scratch on the skin to enable them to be 
pushed under the surface. At the back of the neck the collar, 
or the coat itself may rub the germs in. This accounts for the 
fact that nine boils or carbuncles out of every ten occur at the 
back of the neck, which is a most dangerous place owing to its 
nearness to the brain. Several strange boil afflictions have oc¬ 
curred at the ears, and have been caused by the habit of insert¬ 
ing roughly some small thing into the ear to remove the wax, 
resulting in a slight wound of the skin in the ear passage and 
the development of the dangerous boil there. 

Men who row boats are subject to abrasion of the flesh by 
the friction on the seat of the body where boils appear. Those 
who wear collars that have rough starched edges, as when the 
collars are old, are subject to boils at the neck; while oarsmen 
have them at the seat. The wearing of tight belts has caused 
many boils on the waist line. When the use of suspenders was 
abandoned for the summer belts to hold up the trousers, then 
boils became much more numerous at the waist. 

There are three stages of the boils or carbuncles: 

1. When it is a small pimple and you think it may or may 
not be a boil. 

2. When it is big enough to lance. 

3. When it has formed the core. In this last stage it sends 
its germs through the blood to form other boils. And you must 
not let it get to the third stage. 

Be sure to lance it as soon as you know it is a boil. Treat 
the opening with strong antiseptic. 

But best of all take advantage of the pimple stage; for then 
every coming boil can be conquered. All you have to do is to 
open the pimple, which is a very trifling matter, and put on 
any good antiseptic salve, or liquid. Follow this up until the 
pimple has wholly subsided. 

Proper food, constant cleanliness of the skin, clean clothing, 


Nature’s Doctors 189 

and the avoidance of injuring or rubbing hard against any part 
of the skin will serve to overcome this trouble. 


CATARRH.—This is an accumulation of the dead material 
in the body that results from eating improper foods. It has 
been thoroughly proved that catarrh is impossible when only 
the TRUE FOODS are eaten. A wrong diet may not contain 
actual poisons but may bring into the body much material that 
cannot be assimilated into the blood and tissue and cannot be 
readily thrown off through the lungs, skin, kidneys and canal. 
Its easiest way of escape is through the open mesh of the mem¬ 
branes, and clogging them it becomes catarrh. The remedy is 
simple and permanent; the TRUE FOODS. 


CANCER AND TOBACCO 


Probably the most dangerous, the most filthy, and the most 
painful of all lingering maladies is CANCER. There is very 
little hope of finding a cure. Some facts have been established 
concerning its origin, and yet there is much to be learned be¬ 
fore a definite claim can be made in this regard. At one time 
it seemed that proofs were near at hand that would establish it 
as one of the germ diseases, due to bacteria. But such proofs 
were never found. On the contrary it is probable that no bac¬ 
teria are involved in its origin. 

Flesh is built by a weaving process. 

The tissue that makes flesh is intricately woven by the food 
cells of the blood. As each new weaving takes place the old 
tissue must be disposed of; and this is called breaking down. 
The debris thus thrown into the flesh must be gathered up and 
carried away by the blood in its circulation. In any plant the 
intelligence that weaves the fibre is born in each new cell; and 
it must be an exact mission that is granted it. The cells of the 
rose bush will build the rose; of the apple tree will build the 
apple; of the human body will build human flesh. 

Black, impure blood rushes through the body on the way to 
the heart; but just before it enters the heart, the fresh air that 
has been inhaled into the lungs purifies the blood and changes 
its color into a healthy red. It is the oxygen in the fresh air 





190 


Complete Life Building 

that makes this change. But if the inhaled breath does not con¬ 
tain oxygen, the black blood will smother the heart and cause 
it to stop beating; death will follow. 

Tests have been made whereby this needed oxygen in the air 
is partly weakened but not wholly overcome. The most famil¬ 
iar test is that of breathing thin smoke of tobacco on the air that 
enters the lungs; the result being that the blood is partly de¬ 
prived of its power to weave perfect flesh. 

In examining the tissue of a cancerous sore, the first thing 
that attracts attention is the imperfect weaving of the tissue; 
and that which is imperfect in its weaving is also imperfect in 
its breaking down. If it cannot be taken away by the blood, 
some of it remains to form a permanent sore. Every one of 
these conditions follows the injury to the oxygen in the air 
caused by breathing tobacco smoke into it. In a room where a 
person is smoking, it is impossible to inhale air that has not 
had its oxygen contaminated by the invisible but actively pres¬ 
ent tobacco smoke. 

Take a cubic foot of air from the atmosphere out of doors; 
and take another cubic foot of air from a room that seems well 
ventilated but in which some one is or has been smoking. Here 
you have two cubic feet of air; they are easily analyzed; and 
the person who seeks to argue down a proposition, is confronted 
by the results of these tests. They speak for themselves. If 
he wishes, he can make himself believe that the analyses are 
untruthful, that the chemist is unreliable, that chemistry is a 
lost science, and that air fouled with tobacco smoke is as fresh 
and pure as air that is fresh and pure. 

But the fact remains that air inhaled with the thinnest or 
the thickest fumes of tobacco will NOT WEAVE PERFECT 
FLESH; and imperfectly woven flesh is cancer. 

Then arises the question: Why do not more people have 
cancer ? 

The answer is plain: More people do have cancer. 

In the last two generations the increase of deaths from can¬ 
cer is thirty-two percent; a fearful rate of progress. In the 
last ten years, it has been fourteen percent; a still faster rate 
of increase; fourteen percent in ten years against thirty-two 
percent in two generations. Instead of any increase there should 
have been a marked decrease, as there has been in all other 


Nature’s Doctors 


191 


maladies except a very few, notably those of paresis of the brain 
and paralysis. Mathematics now have a value. At a meeting of 
cancer experts, the President said, “If the present rate of in¬ 
crease goes on, every man and woman will die of cancer in the 
not distant future.” 

Another expert of international reputation stated that he esti¬ 
mated that 80,000 men had died of smoker’s cancer of the throat 
during his life. There is no doubt that there is such a kind of 
cancer. Another expert said that his observations indicated that 
85,000 persons had died of cancer caused by contact of tobacco 
with some cut, wound or abrasion of the body; in a period of 
sixty years. 

THE CONCLUSIVE PROOF has come from the following 
experiment, somewhat after the character of those referred in 
the Third Section of this book: Tissue growth was being watched 
under a glass, and was proceeding perfectly when the thinnest 
film of tobacco smoke was carried to it through a tube of abso¬ 
lutely pure air to avoid any other contamination. The tissue 
growth at once became erratic, and was woven into the same 
abnormal condition that constitutes cancer. This condition is 
described on the preceding page, 190. 

COLDS and SORE THROAT.—Use the same treatment that 
is given for Consumption, including all kindred troubles. 

CONGESTION.—This whole book is built on the natural cure 
of this universal evil. 

CONSTIPATION.—It has been proved that the use of the 
True Foods will effect a complete cure of this trouble. 

COLD SORES OF THE LIPS.—These are due to lack of 
perfect cleanliness of the teeth. Use an antiseptic wash with a 
good brush three times a day, and they will not come. 

CRAMPS and NUMBNESS.—These are due to impure foods, 
or poisons in medicines or pills. The kind of chocolate that is 
used in making candy and in other things, is a very common 
cause. 

CONSUMPTION, TUBERCULOSIS, and ANEMIA.—Here 
are a few definitions: 

1. Consumption is a popular name applied to tuberculosis of 
the lungs. 

2. Anemia is the first result of lack of repair of the tissue and 
nerves of the body. 


192 


Complete Life Building 

3. Lack of repair is due to lack of sound slumber, attended 
by lack of nutrition from proper foods. 

4. Lack of sound slumber preventing lack of repair may show 
itself more decidedly in neurasthenia than in anemia, in which 
case the latter will follow the former. The order generally is: 
Lack of repair; Anemia; Neurasthenia; Tuberculosis. 

It is a well-known fact that Consumption must be combatted 
by a very abundant daily nutrition; with as much fresh, pure 
air as possible; and with no unnecessary breakdown of the tissue 
through too much exercise or activity. 

ANEMIA is called the low nutrition disease; but it involves 
also the problem of repair. It has been established of late that 
REPAIR OCCURS ONLY DURING SOUND SLUMBER. 

In the city the noises that are going on all night, while not 
keeping the mind conscious, permit only a semi-sleep. Slumber 
is fitful, and never deep. The cure is to invite the sleep habit 
by obtaining after any one meal of the day a few minutes or 
more of slumber in a very quiet room. 

NEURASTHENIA, or Nervous Prostration, has been cured 
by the patient going into the country, and adopting a brief sleep 
after some meal in the day time, with plenty at night; and 
always with the use of the True Foods. 

TUBERCULOSIS requires this method of repair as the 
foundation process. 

The habit of seeking pure air by sleeping out of doors at 
night, and living out by day, has not brought about the results 
sought, although the principle is right. The one thing lacking 
is the increase of the lung capacity. This cannot come about by 
natural habits of breathing when a person is in an abnormal 
condition. The cure that has never failed with us is known as 

DOUBLE-RANGE RESPIRATION 

The first fact is that all men and women use less than a half¬ 
range respiration; that is, they breathe into the lungs in each 
act not half as much air as the lungs require for their perfect 
health; and this refers only to the automatic breathing, directing 
itself when left to itself. If you are interested intensely in 
anything, you cease breathing to such an extent that there is no 
visible evidence of respiration going on. This causes headaches. 


Nature’s Doctors 


193 


You are not conscious of the breathing action, as nature looks 
after it subject to the state of your vitality, and to your atten¬ 
tion being diverted. Tests made of women at theatres during 
the period of suspense in a drama, show that about one percent 
of the normal range is employed. Discouragement and melan¬ 
choly stop the breathing almost entirely. People who droop 
and fade away through grief, do so because their vital energies 
that depend on their respiration are not being renewed. On the 
other hand, when good news comes and the prospects are bright, 
the breathing automatically, or naturally, takes on a great in¬ 
crease; so we say that when the good wife has before her the 
prospect of a pleasing journey, or trip abroad, her health begins 
to pick up to such an extent that she soon does not need the 
journey, but must have it because she must not be deceived by 
false promises. 

But the fact is that pleasing anticipations increase the breath¬ 
ing, while reverses and a sombre look ahead in one’s affairs 
decrease it; and with it comes and goes the vital life that builds 
or destroys health. Thousands of men die every year of pneu¬ 
monia because of discouragement. 

PNEUMONIA IS IMPOSSIBLE when the Double-Range 
Respiration is fully established, so that it can be called into use 
on brief notice. 

Can Consumption be cured by Double-Range Respiration? 
Yes, with never a failure if Repair is sought in the manner 
stated, and if Nutrition is secured through the use of the True 
Foods. In about fifty years of our existence, we have cured 
more than nine hundred thousand cases of Consumption by this 
triple method. But without Double-Range Respiration no cure 
has ever been complete. With it, there can be no failure. The 
Fownes case was one that attracted national attention; a man 
who had but half of one lung left when we came to his assist¬ 
ance; and his long life afterwards bore testimony, as did his 
many words, to the power of Double-Range Respiration. 

DOUBLE-RANGE RESPIRATION COST $6,000,00. 

This is not the same as deep breathing. The latter has been 
taught and published for half a century, but lacks the one great 
essential of success; and this essential was locked up as a secret 
in the methods of a great teacher of the singing and speaking 


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voice who secured such remarkable results that his services were 
sought far and wide. The most famous singers, actors and ora¬ 
tors patronized him, and secured the desired benefits without 
learning the extraordinary secret of his success. Voices in 
grand opera acquired a range, a purity, and a fulness never 
before known. Thousands of pupils among the lesser and 
greater ranks of speakers and singers came to him. In all his 
career he concealed the secret by clothing it in a multitude 
of ideas, until no one knew which one was paramount. He 
finally sold it to one of his patrons, and here it is. 

Before we make it known, we must impress on our followers 
the fact that RANGE of respiration means the quantity of air 
that is taken into the lungs in each act of breathing; and this 
definition has been understood for fifty years if not for cen¬ 
turies. In the expression, Double-Range, the meaning is re¬ 
versed ; and it means the quantity of air that is exhaled on each 
expiration. The positive cure of consumption, and the guaran¬ 
teed prevention of pneumonia, depend not on how much air you 
inhale, but on how much you exhale. 

Why? 

Because consumption begins at the apex of each division of 
the lungs; the air here stays stagnant for years, hardly moving 
at all; and when the respiration is at low ebb, it rots and be¬ 
comes a poison. You cannot inhale into the apex. The only way 
in which you can move the air there is by exhaling, or breathing 
out with all the effort possible; for it is the force of expelled 
air that reaches the apex and that empties its cells. 

There are many varieties of deep breathing; each teacher has 
some special kind; but not one of them includes this secret. We 
have seen deep breathing taught for fifty years, and by thou¬ 
sands of teachers; but never once in that time have we seen this 
secret taught; nor have we ever known a teacher who knew that 
the air at the apex of each lung division was stale and could not 
be moved out by any form of deep breathing. 

The slogan has been always: ‘‘Fill your lungs full; increase 
your range of respiration.’’ The truth is: “Empty your lungs 
completely and get out all the dead air.” 

The second part of the secret is: When the lungs are empty, 
the spring action of the breathing muscle, called the diaphragm, 
will, by its rebounding, INHALE NATURALLY A FULL 


Nature’s Doctors 


195 


RANGE OF AIR. It will be natural; because it is done by the 
impulse of the diaphragm, and not by your sucking air in by 
the artificial method taught by all kinds of teachers. 

Here is the Double-Range Respiration. 

Any person who employs it cannot become a victim of pneu¬ 
monia, for the reason that that malady begins by lodging in 
the dead air of each apex. 

Any person who employs it cannot take in the germs of tuber¬ 
culosis, or consumption, for the reason that they have no place 
in which to find lodgment. 

Any person who employs it cannot have catarrh of the bron¬ 
chial tubes or throat or nose, because two trains cannot pass 
on the same track; meaning that when full range pure air has 
the right of way from the nostrils to the lungs, going and com¬ 
ing, there is no room for catarrh. The membranes are kept 
absolutely fresh and clean. 

ANEMIA is fully and quickly cured by Double-Range Res¬ 
piration, with the True Foods, and sound slumber for repair¬ 
ing lost tissue of flesh and nerves. 

LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLES sometimes are necessary 
to save one from premature fatal collapse; and such struggles 
are made successfully by making use of Double-Range Respira¬ 
tion and the True Foods. Probably millions of men and women, 
of young men and young women, and of children have gone 
down to the grave many years ahead of their time, who could 
have lived to a good old age had they been able to make use 
of this means of help. 

THE DOUBLE-RANGE RESPIRATION METHOD. 

Let us learn it in all its exactness and accuracy. 

The wrong method of inhaling is to expand the upper chest; 
the right way is to expand the line of the chest in the region 
of the diaphragm, or breathing organ. This may be found by 
passing the hand along the lower edges of the ribs where they 
join the abdomen. On every rebound for an inhalation, keep 
your mind on this line, and see that it alone expands. 

The general method taught of exhaling is to drop the chest 
as the air goes out; the reverse is the right way. Keep the 
chest in its normal position. Never let it drop. But with the 


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force of the hands placed flat on the front walls of the abdomen 
below the ribs, push gently but steadily in as the breath is going 
out, until the front wall of the abdomen is in and under the ribs 
as far as you can push it. 

In order to move the stale air in the apexes of the tops of the 
lungs, hold the breath as you are trying to exhale. This forces 
the lower air into the tops, and dislodges the dead air there. 
Then release the breath and let it all out. The quantity of air 
that comes in by the natural rebound of the diaphragm will de¬ 
pend on the quantity that goes out in the manner stated. 

Persons of weak lungs and consumptives who are feeble, may 
perform all these movements with the utmost gentleness, and 
strength will begin to come as they are adopted with great fre¬ 
quency; but they need never tire a person. 

LA GRIPPE may be fully controlled by the use of Double- 
Range Respiration if one will rest during the day, sleep as much 
as possible, and take liquid food selected from the True Foods; 
or milk, raw eggs, soups, broths, juice of very ripe sweet oranges 
iced, and juice of pineapple in which cubes of old bread toasted 
have been soaked. 

DANDRUFF, Loss of Hair, Scalp Diseases. 

When the foods are true, with all elements, and the scalp is 
washed with a very mild soap, these troubles all disappear. 


THE EYESIGHT 

1. The eyes follow, or really keep pace with the health; in 
fact with the condition of the blood. So well known is this fact 
that any doctor is able, by looking into the eye, to determine 
not only the impurity of the blood, but the presence of organic 
disease. The BASIS, therefore, of eye-health is secured by 
the GREAT LAW OF LAWS: One Hundred Percent RIGHT 
in Food Selection. 

2. There are many small lines of advice as to the care of 
the eyes, which, while all valuable, need not be repeated here; 
the most notable of them being: Never use the eyes to read 
when facing the light; never use them on moving cars; never 
use them on a stomach long empty; never use them in a dim 
light, as in twilight or gloomy places; never use them when the 
lids itch or burn. 


Nature’s Doctors 


197 


3. GERMS that float from the dust of the air and lodge on 
the lids set up granulation not only of the lids, but of the eye¬ 
ball itself, and even penetrate into the contents of the eye. As 
long as there are germs there must be antiseptics. The following 
eye-wash can be made at home for a trifling cost: 

HOME EYE-WASH 

Get sixteen grains of sulphate of zinc; and 160 grains of 
powdered alum. Put these in one quart of distilled water. 
You can make this yourself; the total cost is or should be less 
than twenty cents. 

It will last a family for several years. When the eyes are 
tired, or when the lids bum or itch, close them tightly, and rub 
a few drops of this wash along and well into the edges of the 
lids. Keep the lids closed for a minute or more. Repeat until 
all redness or itching is gone. This wash will prevent styes 
and various forms of disease due to bad food selection and air- 
dust germs which are sure to lodge on the lids and eventually 
get into the eyes. There are thousands of Ralston families 
where this wash has been in use for many years, and there has 
never been any eye-trouble. 

4. FAILING SIGHT.—This is due to several causes: Wrong 
Food Selection which makes bad blood; organic trouble; a tooth 
the root of which is decayed and which is poisoning the blood; 
misuse as stated in paragraph 2, herein; and a change in the 
shape of the eye-ball. 

5. When glasses are made necessary by the last-named cause, 
the change in the shape of the eye-ball, as in old age or pre¬ 
mature alteration in the eye, the remedy is in the following 
restoration of the shape of the ball, which has been accomplished 
thousands of times by the movements of the muscles. 

The original rotundity may be restored. 

Learn to raise the eyes; then lower them; and to hold them 
level. 

Without raising or lowering the head, look up at the ceiling; 
down at the floor; and in front on a level with the face. 

Learn next to look far to the right; then far to the left. 

By combining these two series of positions you can make nine 
in all. 



198 


RALSTON EYE MOVEMENTS 




























Nature’s Doctors 


199 


The action of the eyes is as follows: 

In the central position look front level; front as high as pos¬ 
sible without raising the head; front as low as possible without 
lowering the head. Repeat until you have done these three 
movements each ten times, or thirty in all; which will complete 
the front positions; or central positions, which are the same. 
Make the first movements very gently. 

Then take the level movements; without raising the head or 
raising or lowering the eyes, look to the center; then to the right; 
then to the left each ten times, or thirty in all. 

Next come the diagonal movements which are: Up to the right 
and down to the left, stopping for the middle position; each ten 
times; then up to the left and down to the right, stopping at 
the center, each ten times. 

The purpose is to pull the eye muscles in all ways, and there¬ 
by pull the eyeball itself into its original or natural shape of 
greater rotundity. That this has been successful can be seen 
from thousands of reports of men and women of various ages 
from the twenties to the seventies, the typical expressions in 
which are as follows: 

“By persistent practice I have restored the shape of the eyes 
which had begun to flatten; and now I do not need glasses. ’ ’ 

“I have discarded my glasses as my sight is now normal.” 

“I have thrown away my glasses. Do not think I shall ever 
have to wear them again.” 

“After practicing the eye movements for several weeks I 
found that my eye-glasses w r ere too strong; and after a few 
more weeks of practice, the weaker glasses were too strong. 
Now I get along with none. It is a great blessing and comfort 
not to wear glasses.” 

“I now have the sight of youth.” 

If these reports had come from a few hundred persons we 
might have regarded the recovery of normal sight as due to the 
imagination; but the real reason is that these movements pull 
the eyeballs into their original shape. When the True Foods 
are eaten, the movements help wonderfully to clear vision. 

THE HEARING becomes impaired from the collection of wax 
in the ears which should be relieved by the use of sweet oil and 
an ear spoon, such as can be bought at any drug store. Stagnation 
of the ear nerves may be overcome by the action of hand mas- 


200 


Complete Life Building 

sage. This is performed by placing the flat of the hands on the 
temples and moving the skin up and down one hundred times 
without allowing the hands to slip over the skin. Repeat at the 
back of the ears with the hands on the scalp. Then above the 
ears in the same way; each one hundred times. Finally place the 
tips of the fingers below the ears and repeat the same motion. 
When these precautions are taken, and True Foods eaten, the 
hearing never becomes impaired even in extreme old age. 

A man or woman can live a hundred years with all faculties 
in perfect condition if the health is cared for. 

DIABETES.—This malady is due to shock, injury at the base 
of the brain, worry, prolonged disappointment, and surface water 
used for drinking and cooking purposes. It has been the custom 
of doctors to starve their patients to death; but we find that if 
the True Foods are eaten, and if distilled water is used for drink¬ 
ing and cooking purposes, the majority of cases can be cured, 
and all can be prevented except those that are due to injury. 
Many cases of diabetes have been completely cured by merely 
changing the drinking water; avoiding water from lakes, rivers, 
brooks, ponds, and from all surface sources. Many spring waters 
are good. 

DIPHTHERIA.—This malady can be combated and a fatal 
termination averted by the prompt use of serum injections which 
all doctors now employ. 

FATTY DEGENERATION.—This may occur in the liver, in 
the heart, or in other parts of the body; and is cured very easily, 
but slowly, by the use of the True Foods. 

GALL STONES.—These come from hard water and from 
foods or drinks that are not suited to the needs of the body; but 
largely from tomatoes, old meats, such as an excess of old beef, 
or mutton, pastry, lard, fried things and acids, notably vine¬ 
gar, sour apples, cranberries, and all acid fruits. Skim milk 
slowly dissolves these stones, if the diet is freed from the abuses 
just mentioned. 

HAY FEVER—ROSE COLD.—These kindred maladies are 
supposed to be incurable. They are said to be caused by pollen 
on weeds and flowers; but can we say that the match that sets 
off the fuse to a bomb is the cause of the explosion? If the 
fuse were not there, and if the bomb were not there, the match 
would not of itself have blown up the building. Nor would 


Nature’s Doctors 


201 


pollen, or rag weed, or any flower bring on an attack of hay 
fever if some preceding causes were not present. There are 
two such causes: 

1. Congestion of the liver and stomach. 

2. Lack of calcium chloride in the blood. 

The congestion can be surely cured by using the TRUE 
FOODS. 

But it is not easy to put into the blood the needed Calcium 
Chloride in the form of organized vegetable cells. Yet we 
know that salt never is organized in vegetable cells and that it 
is needed daily; we refer to common table salt, known as sodium 
chloride. Here we have part of the food elements required to 
overcome hay fever. The calcium is present in many of the 
TRUE FOODS. 

However a direct help must be found, and we come upon one 
of the very few exceptions to the rule that all food should be 
organized in life cells. We therefore present the following 
prescription for 

THE CURE OF HAY FEVER AND ROSE COLD 

50 grains calcium chloride, dry. 500 cubic centimeters of 
distilled water. Take one teaspoonful in water half an hour 
after each meal, or three times daily. Begin at once, and con¬ 
tinue every day in the year. 

HEADACHES.—This is the most common of the maladies 
that are in evidence. It is as old as the race. Some men have 
it, and most women. The latter go about with cloths on the 
heads or at their temples, suffering; and have never been told 
that headaches come from very simple causes, as follows: 

The most common cause is an empty stomach. Ralstonism 
has probably cured hundreds of thousands of cases by insisting 
on five meals a day, or even six, all light. Take a substantial 
and wholesome breakfast; then in two hours a lunch; after this 
the dinner, light but wholesome; then a mid-afternoon lunch; 
after this the supper ; and, if need be, a light lunch before re¬ 
tiring. Ninety-nine out of every hundred are “ empty stomach 
headaches.” It seems simple enough. Try it. 

Let tea alone. A person who is subject to headaches can 
never be relieved as long as this poison is used. If you drink 


202 


Complete Life Building 

coffee, never take it alone, but only in very small quantity after 
eating, not during the meal. 

HEART FAILURE.—When this organ ceases to beat the 
life of the body goes out no matter how well it may be. Some¬ 
times so slight a cause as the poison gas from indigestion may 
bring the fatal end in a few seconds. The first caution, there¬ 
fore, is to be directed to the diet. 

HARDENING OF THE ARTERIES.—This is the ripening 
of the body; in some cases it begins when the boy or girl is in 
the teens, more often in the twenties, still more often in the 
thirties, forties and fifties, up to the years of extreme old age. 
We have seen old children, and young mature people. The 
first cause of ripening is the accumulation of material in the 
body that is not food. The tea drinker ages twenty to thirty 
percent faster than would be the case otherwise. People who 
eat long-cooked broths, soups and other food, show old age long 
before those who avoid the dregs of cooking. The habit of 
adding water to the grounds in the coffee-pot or teapot and re¬ 
heating the mixture, adds old age conditions. 

The first step to take is to adopt the True Foods; then drink 
distilled water freely every day; and add the juices of very 
ripe juice-fruits, all of which are solvents of old age material, 
and overcome hardening of the arteries, if you take once every 
morning and once every evening the 

OUTWARD WATER CURE. 

This Cure is most helpful in the following maladies: 

Appendicitis. 

Hardening of the Arteries. 

Fatty Degeneration of any Organ. 

High Blood Pressure. 

Kidney Poisoning. 

Intestinal Poisoning. 

Indigestion. 

Congestion of the Abdominal Membranes. 

Sluggish Liver. 

Gall Stones. 

Nervous Breakdown. 

Poor Circulation. 

Skin Troubles. 


Nature’s Doctors 203 

The OUTWARD WATER CURE has two parts; the first 
of which is known as 

THE MAGNETIC BATH. 

The purpose of this bath is to create a vast fund of personal 
electricity and magnetism in the entire body. In using it, there 
should be a number of ZONES. The head from the top of the 
neck should be kept cool all the time by a very little cool water 
rubbed over the scalp occasionally. 

The FIRST ZONE is that from the top of the neck to the 
lower ribs, including the neck and upper torso or chest region. 

Step in an empty bath tub with the waste open so that water 
may run out as used. Get a sixteen quart pail and fill it with 
water from the hot and cold faucets until its temperature is 
about 98 degrees. Have a large silk sponge, five, six or seven 
inches in diameter. "Wet the sponge, soap it with some pure 
soap, dip it in the water, and wash the FIRST ZONE; then 
rinse it with clean water; and wipe it dry with a hot towel. 

The SECOND ZONE includes the lower half of the torso, 
down as far as the top of the hips. When the upper part of 
the torso is dry, treat the lower part in the same manner. 

The THIRD ZONE includes the rest of the body from the top 
of the hips to the feet. When the second is very dry, treat the 
third in like manner. 

In time you will notice a very fine glow filling the first zone 
when the second is wet; and filling this when the third is wet ; 
always depending on having each preceding one perfectly dry. 

This is MAGNETISM, and it will grow from day to day until 
the flow is strong and invigorating, and should follow about two 
or three hours after a meal of the True Foods. 

THE OUTWARD WATER CURE 

This is a long, tedious, but life-saving bath, based on recent 
discoveries. Its purpose is to draw out of the body from far 
within the poisons and defunct material that do harm by their 
presence. There are doctors who prescribe eight hours under 
water in a tub, for this purpose; but of course only occasion¬ 
ally. This has proved more harmful than the cure effected. 
There are other doctors who prescribe an hour or more under 
a shower bath with water flowing steadily over the body. This 


204 


Complete Life Building 

is not safe for it lacks the essential value of an active body. 
The swimmer who moves through the water for hours at a time, 
is active. An inactive body in water suffers from the inward 
soaking through the pores, when the end sought is the reverse, 
or the outward drawing of poisons and defunct material. 

The only part that should be subjected to this treatment is 
the poison section known as the abdomen. It extends from the 
lowest rib around the trunk, as far down as the top of the hips; 
and this section may be given half an hour of continual spong¬ 
ing with the big silk sponge, pressing in with each application 
of water, so that the bowels are kneaded, allowing the abdominal 
wall to push the pressure back again by distending. This bath 
may be taken once in the morning and again in the evening. 

APPENDICITIS in its incipient form, also as a chronic con¬ 
dition has been completely overcome by this OUTWARD 
WATER CURE; and we have a large number of reports that 
operations have been avoided thereby. 

INDIGESTION, both of the stomach and intestines, has been 
completely cured in the same manner. But it is very helpful in 
all the cases we have enumerated in a preceding page. 

INFLUENZA is allied with colds, la grippe and similar con¬ 
ditions; and all yield to the treatment described for la grippe 
which makes use of Double-Range Respiration; day rest, day 
sleep if possible, as well as night sleep; and liquid food selected 
from the True Foods; or milk, raw eggs, soups, broths, juice 
of very ripe sweet oranges iced, and juice of pineapple in which 
cubes of old bread toasted have been soaked. 


INSANITY 

The only known cure for this malady, where it has already 
dethroned the reason, is found in the first Six Sections of the 
Post-Graduate Course of the Ralston Health Club, known as 
BRAIN TESTS. The subject is so extensive that it would bur¬ 
den this book beyond its usefulness to add it here, and would 
increase the cost unnecessarily. But all forms of insanity are 
not curable. 

INCIPIENT INSANITY can always be cured and complete 
healing follow by the first Six Sections of the Course in Brain 

Tests. 



Nature’s Doctors 


205 


THREATENED MENTAL BREAKDOWN 
SLIPPING MEMORY, 

ERRATIC PROCESSES OF THINKING, and every form 
of weakness or lack of power in this organ, are thoroughly healed 
by the Sections mentioned; and we know positively that there 
is no other hope of cure ever offered humanity. 

“CAN’ST THOU MINISTER TO A MIND DISEASED?” 

Nothing can be more terrible than mind disease. It is never 
physical and is not cured by physical methods such as may reach 
the body and the brain. The first indications that this subtle, 
secretly-working malady is invading the mind is the 

FEAR OF SOME PORTENDING TROUBLE, accompanied 
by a vague unrest and discontent. WORRY often precedes 
this condition, but generally follows it. The evil influence of 
WORRY is far more potent than is supposed; doctors know 
that it causes the majority of cases of fatal diabetes. If it can 
do this, what can it not do? Mental Disease also appears in 
MELANCHOLY, leading to obsessions ; and ninety percent of 
humanity is said to suffer from these ghastly visitations.—The 
breaking up of the faculties is due more to the mind’s disease 
than to that of the body. 

A mind that is as CLEAR AS CRYSTAL accompanying a 
SOUND JUDGMENT in all matters great and small is a grander 
blessing than mere health of body; and the attainment of such 
a blessing is the main work of the Post Graduate Course of the 
Ralston Health Club, issued in a volume much larger than this 
book of Life Building, under the general title of “BRAIN 
TESTS.”* 

INSOMNIA.—This is inability to sleep nights. It has three 
forms: 

Mental activity. 

Nervous activity. 

Physical activity. 

In the first form you go to bed thinking, and keep on thinking 
clear into the night, often till morning. 

* “BRAIN TESTS,” a complete system of vast scope, teaching perfect 
Mental Health; published privately by Ralston Company, Hopewell, New 
Jersey, price ten dollars; free to Progressive Ralstonites under plan stated 
in final pages of this book, 



206 


Complete Life Building 


In the second form you are all afire in your nerves. 

In the third form your muscles are restless, twitching and 
seeking vent for their energies all night long. This last-named 
trouble is due wholly to the eating of too much nitrogenous food 
after the noon meal. 

The duty of nitrogenous food is to make muscles and furnish 
the machinery of the body. Common sense tells us that such 
food is required before the day’s work; never after it. There is 
no such thing as repairing muscular loss by rest, or after it 
occurs. Muscles build themselves by use, never by rest. If you 
carry your arm in a sling for a period, it will lose all its mus¬ 
cular tissue. When you lie in bed for days your muscles grow 
flabby. 

The following foods should not be eaten later than the noon 
hour if you are troubled with insomnia: Avoid all meats; all 
rich fish like salmon; all old peas and beans, all shelled beans; 
all fibrous vegetables, all vegetables cooked with meat, pork or 
fat; all new bread, rolls and biscuits cooked the same day; all 
fried cakes and other food; and everything in the Three Hour, 
Four Hour, Five Hour and Never Classes. 

IRRITABILITY.—This is a warning symptom of a wrong 
condition in the body; just as neuralgia is another warning 
symptom of something else that is wrong and that needs atten¬ 
tion. It has been said that 999 persons in every thousand suffer 
from congestion without knowing it; and Nature seeks to give 
notice of this condition by what we call irritability. Unless 
congestion gets a hold of the membrane of the stomach and of 
the connecting membranes, no disease or malady can follow. 
This fact should be remembered every day of the year. 

The cause of congestion is material that is not needed by the 
body or the abusive manner of cooking what is needed. Fried 
foods and pastry always set up congestion. Its presence is 
never known at first except by the irritated condition of the 
nerves. 

Look at the list of foods that cause PROFANITY under that 
subject in this Section; any one of those foods is able to set up 
congestion and result in irritability, the forerunner of profanity 
and the craving for alcohol and other stimulants. Normally the 
system rejects all stimulants. One of the natural ends of the 
victim of alcoholism is insanity; and every expert knows that 


Nature’s Doctors 


207 


irritability is the forerunner of the most violent forms of in¬ 
sanity when it has gone unchecked to its climax. No one pre¬ 
tends to deny that delirium tremens is the final curtain of al¬ 
coholism, and it is an abject and degrading form of insanity. 
Like the spokes that radiate from the hub of a wheel, all these 
methods of wrecking human life and its hopes have their be¬ 
ginning in a congested stomach, and the cause of that trouble is 
in the things that enter the mouth on their way to the stomach; 
things that are poisonous to the body. 

The man who can conquer himself is greater than he who can 
conquer or rule a city. Here is the opportunity for testing 
self control. Study yourself to ascertain whether or not you 
are irritable, whether you desire at times to use language that 
is profane or rough; if so, conquer the trouble by removing the 
cause. 


KIDNEY TROUBLES 
BRIGHT’S DISEASE 

More than fifty million people in America have chronic 
Bright’s Disease in a mild and curable form. Of this number 
five million may neglect the trouble and die in agony sooner or 
later. The others may drag along, most of them under the care 
of doctors, and keep alive for many years; probably staying on 
earth half of the time otherwise allotted them. 

There is but one basic cause for kidney diseases; and that is 
eating more of the muscle-making foods than these organs can 
dispose of. When this fact is learned and listened to, there is 
hope for all sufferers who have not yet reached the fatal stage 
of the malady. TOO MUCH MUSCLE-MAKING FOOD. 

The kidneys of a person who does not use the body physically 
very much each day, will not dispose of more than three ounces 
of muscle-making food every twenty-four hours. 

But if a person gives the body much outdoor air, much ac¬ 
tivity, yet is not a hard worker, then the kidneys will dispose 
of six ounces of this class of food. 

The hard working man, especially if out of doors to a large 
extent, may eat twelve ounces of this kind of food. 

While whole wheat, whole rice, cream, milk and butter con¬ 
tain some of the muscle-making food value, it is never possible 


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Complete Life Building 

to take them to excess so as to injure the kidneys. We, there- 
fore, omit them in this classification. 

The most common of the MUSCLE-MAKING FOODS ARE: 

1. Meat of all kinds, and in all conditions, fresh, salted, smoked 
and otherwise prepared, cooked or un-cooked. They are the most 
dangerous enemies of the kidneys, for the reason that they are 
the stored up poisons of the animals from which they are taken. 
Every ounce of meat, therefore, puts the kidneys to double tax 
to dispose of the poisons contained in it. 

2. Cheese. This includes all kinds of cheese made from the 
curd of milk. It is a concentrated muscle-making food, unbal¬ 
anced by the other parts of the milk. In the form of whole 
milk, it is never a danger to the kidneys. 

3. Old beans. While not containing locked up animal poisons 
like meat, beans do in fact carry a greater proportion of muscle¬ 
making food; for which reason they furnish a long stand-by for 
laborers. Pound for pound they are only half the tax on the 
kidneys that meats are, and are to be preferred; but sedentary 
persons should eat but few of them at a meal, and never after 
midday. 

4. Old peas. What is true of beans is likewise true of peas. 

5. Eggs. The yolks when boiled hard for an hour or more 
are digestible, and one or two eggs a day can be passed by the 
kidneys if the whites are not cooked. When the latter are 
coagulated even in the slightest degree, the kidneys will not pass 
them. If you are an egg eater, we advise boiling them for one 
hour or longer; some persons boil them for three hours; then 
wholly discard the whites and eat from one to three a day de¬ 
pending on your physical activity; but on the same day eat no 
more muscle-making food. 

6. Oat Meal. One dish of oat meal cooked all night, or not 
less than three hours in the day time, contains half the muscle¬ 
making food needed by the average person of active life; and 
in much better form. It also contains practically all the food 
elements required to build a perfect body. 

When oat meal is eaten, no meat, egg, cheese, beans or peas 
should be taken at the same meal. When meat is eaten, no oat 
meal, cheese, egg, peas or beans should be taken at the same 
meal. And so on through the list. Never double a muscle¬ 
making food; never eat two kinds of this food at the same meal. 


Nature’s Doctors 


209 


The worst barbarism is that of baked beans, pork, and brown 
bread as a repast. No wonder the old timers of Boston died 
early. No wonder they all had kidney complications while they 
lived. 

And it is no wonder that fifty million inhabitants of our fair 
land are to-day suffering from some form of kidney malady; 
mostly from incipient Bright’s Disease. 

Nature has been kind in such cases. 

She has given her victims a chance to escape death if they 
will adopt her teachings. She has given them a covering of the 
body called the SKIN, and has installed in that covering count¬ 
less millions of little engines which are able to pump out of the 
blood the poisons that the kidneys are not able to throw off. 

If you keep the pores of the skin open by one very thorough 
daily bath, you will never die of kidney disease. But the skin 
clogs itself so completely in every twenty-four hours that it 
ceases to be of service to the kidneys. 

Some college students in the hazing days varnished the skin 
of one of their fellow students; and in twenty minutes he died 
in great agony. In another college where they had not heard 
of this case, students covered one of their fellow students with 
sticking plaster; he lived for two hours; and died after great 
suffering. These cases indicate that a dirty hide may permit 
enough of its functions to take place to avoid death, but not 
enough to be of help to the kidneys. 

LIVER TROUBLES are cured by the use of the True Foods, 
and by the daily adoption of Double-Range Respiration, aided 
by the Outward Water Cure; all of which agencies act directly 
on this organ. 

LOCKJAW, or Tetanus, is due to the lodgment of poison 
matter under the skin, generally at some thick part. The wound 
should never be allowed to cover over as long as danger exists; 
and powerful antiseptics should be applied. Rusty nails pene¬ 
trating the feet are the common cause. 

MALARIA.—This is a mosquito disease; and has been over¬ 
come wherever stagnant water has all been subjected to crude oil. 

NEURALGIA.—This is a warning issued by Nature that you 
are in some way abusing your body or its vitality. The usual 
forms of abuse are: 


210 


Complete Life Building 


Lack of Sleep. 

Stomach too Long Empty. 

Indigestion. 

Improper Foods. 

Not Sufficient Nourishment in the Foods Eaten. 

Eye Strain. 

Toothache. 

The cure is apparent if the cause is known. 

NERVOUS PROSTRATION, and 

NEURASTHENIA.—See the treatment given under the head 
of Anemia and Consumption. Also adopt Double-Range Res¬ 
piration; day sleep; and the non-irritating foods which are 
known as the True Foods. 

NEURITIS.—This is called the new or modern disease. It 
is perhaps the most painful and cruel of all maladies, for the 
reason that it is torture of the nerves themselves. It is gener¬ 
ally fatal. It has come into existence as the partner of general 
food adulteration. All flour, all meats and all canned goods of 
every kind are adulterated with chemicals that irritate the nerves 
and destroy their fiber. People who are so situated that they 
must depend on canned goods and canned fruits are fast becom¬ 
ing victims of this modern torture; while, on the other hand, 
those who live in the country where vegetables are canned with¬ 
out chemicals, and where fruits are put up in their natural state, 
never suffer from neuritis. An expert in this malady said that 
there were no cases of this disease except in the cities. 

PARALYSIS.—This differs from neuritis in that the latter 
is the dying of the nerves themselves; while the former is the 
dying of one or more nerve-centers, or the sudden slumber of 
such nerve centers. Occasionally they wake. In the kind of 
influenza that prevailed when the Government, during the world 
war, asked people to eat all the tomatoes they could, and forego 
all the real food they could, the lungs became paralyzed because 
their nerve centers stopped functioning; with the result that 
the victim suffocated and died from lack of respiration. In 
acute indigestion the poison gas distends the stomach and pushes 
its walls against the heart, at the same time injuring the vitality 
of the latter by the poison of the gas, so that the heart is tem¬ 
porarily paralyzed. It stops, and rarely ever starts again. Then 
there is the funeral. 


Nature’s Doctors 


211 


Then there is chronic paralysis of the bladder valve, due 
wholly and always to tea drinking. All tea drinkers are drippers 
of drops of urine; and old people lose so much daily that the 
odor fills the house. 

Tea quiets the nerves. So do many drugs. The nerves that 
are quieted by a poison are partly killed. The United States 
Government in one of its Bulletins makes the statement that 
41 the drinking of iced tea is slow suicide.* ’ Likewise the drink¬ 
ing of tea or any nerve-quieter is slow paralysis. Doctors who 
specialize in this malady say that “ ninety percent of all para¬ 
lytics are tea drinkers.” In one ward in one city during a 
period of ten years, 418 persons died from paralysis, and in¬ 
vestigation proved that every one of them without exception 
was a tea drinker. 

All the widely advertised drugs, pills and medicines of today 
are guilty of the crime of causing either neuritis or paralysis. 
They also cause great irritation of the nerves, and this invites 
the other habit, tea drinking. 

Many persons bring their over-heated, unbathed bodies into 
railroad cars, and at once open the windows at their seats, not 
stopping to think that the cold blasts of air strike the frail 
woman or child in the seat next behind, and endanger life 
through pneumonia or paralysis. Many deaths have been 
directly traced to this practice. One railroad conductor re¬ 
ported in his experience of forty years, twenty-four cases of 
paralytic shock as having occurred on trains in his charge, all 
due to the opening of car windows. 

PARESIS.—This is often called softening of the brain, but 
incorrectly. It is a form of paralysis due to alcoholism, or to 
inherited syphilitic taint. It cannot be cured. 

PILES.—These are caused by the liver, but there are causes 
that precede liver trouble. Thus thousands of people have piles 
only during the strawberry season; this is due to an acid poison 
that follows through the liver into the intestines. On the other 
hand there are certain kinds of pills used as a laxative that re¬ 
sult in piles while giving only temporary relief from constipa¬ 
tion. Some medicines do the same thing. The process is very 
easy to understand. Piles are attended by the protruding of 
the end of the alimentary canal. When in health it is tense 
and vigorous; when paralyzed in part by drugs or acids in 


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fruits, it ceases to hold its tense nature and becomes flabby, so 
that it cannot hold itself in place. 

Bleeding piles as well as protruding piles may be overcome 
by holding a piece of ice as large as a pullet’s egg, against the 
place. Wrap the ice in cloth, and have several thicknesses of 
cloth on the outside to assist in keeping it against the intestine. 
This method has prevented many cases from being taken to the 
hospital where an operation had been ordered by doctors. 

PROFANITY is a universal disease of the nerves, involving 
the brain, the mind and the vital centers. It is known as the 
“CONGESTION MALADY.” 

It is of two classes: 

1. Habit. 

2. The shrieking of the nerves suffering from blind conges¬ 
tion and the more intense forms of irritability due to indigestion. 

When it is a habit, it is a parrot-like repetition of what has 
been uttered by others. Almost any group of boys whose par¬ 
ents are profane may be heard speaking unconsciously the words 
of the most abhorrent oaths. This is a common event in city 
and town. With this class of cases we have nothing to do. It 
serves to furnish the complete vocabulary for those who have 
dire need of bad words to relieve their feelings and torment. 

THE PROFANITY DIET.—This consists of the fol¬ 
lowing: Bacon, cheese, pork, lard, sausage, doughnuts, 
crullers, pastry, fried ham, fried meats of any kind, 
fried fish, fried potatoes, crisps, chips, new bread, com 
flakes, fried egg plant, fried eggs, Saratoga potatoes, 
tea, coffee, baked beans, old beans, old peas, sweet pota¬ 
toes, yams, marmalade, fried oysters, mincemeat, clams, 
lobster, suet, goose, turnips, cabbage, radishes, cran¬ 
berries, cucumbers, peppers, pickles, vinegar, catsup, 
peanuts, peanut butter, spices, dried currants, fruit cake, 
gelatine, coconut, pickled meats, salted meats, smoked 
meats, smoked fish, pickled fish, old or fibrous vege¬ 
tables, crisp surfaces of meats or other food, the choco¬ 
late in common use, candies not home made, gravies, 
dressings, sauces, fancy breads, cakes, oily nuts, and in 
fact all nuts except almonds and chestnuts. 


Nature’s Doctors 


213 


RHEUMATISM.—As used by people in general the term 
rheumatism embraces many different kinds of affliction, that 
apparently are all along the same line. Neuralgia is often con¬ 
founded with this malady. It is useless to split hairs in defin¬ 
ing the results of a group of causes all of which may be brought 
to an end by proper eating, or other preventive measures. 

It is a poison disease. 

Even so small a thing as an unhealthy tonsil may set up 
enough poison in the system to establish chronic rheumatic con¬ 
ditions. If you suspect that as a cause, let your doctor inspect 
your tonsils; and if they are diseased, have them cut out. There 
is no danger in the operation. 

Poison from decayed teeth has been known to set up this 
malady. 

But ninety-nine cases out of every hundred are due solely to 
a wrong diet. There are fourteen elements required by the 
human body to sustain its life, every one of which must be 
taken in constantly. When some of these are lacking, neuralgia 
follows; the absence of a certain quantity of bone material re¬ 
sults in the rickets. 

On the other hand if you eat fifteen elements instead of the 
fourteen, you may have some form of rheumatism. The fact 
is that all rheumatic people, with rare exceptions, are eating, 
not fourteen or fifteen, but a daily average of more than forty 
elements, or twenty-six more than the body requires or can take 
care of. 

STOMACH TROUBLES.—Almost every man or woman, who 
does not live up to the doctrines of the Ralston Health Club, 
has some form of stomach trouble. The cure is embraced in 
the general work of this book, and requires the mastery of the 
principles set forth herein. 

It is in the stomach that the first fires of sickness have their 
origin; that organ becomes congested or sore. It is said that 
practically every stomach that has been examined in autopsies 
has shown this congested or sore condition. The inflammation 
slowly, steadily spreads in all directions; to the liver, to the kid¬ 
neys, to the abdominal contents, to the heart, to the lungs, and 
eventually up the passages to the throat; and wherever it goes 
the functions become abnormal. Various kinds of catarrh follow. 

The stomach becomes catarrhal. 


214 


Complete Life Building 

Such a stomach is an unfit organ for the digestion of food. 
It also becomes sore and inflamed; and as such is not a fit organ 
to carry on digestion. There is no known cure for these mala¬ 
dies except to cease abusing the stomach by improper foods and 
improper cooking. Medicines only increase the trouble. Use 
the True Foods and get well. 

SYPHILIS 

This brings us to the unpleasant part of our work; the dis¬ 
cussion of what is undoubtedly the most horrible and most filthy 
of all human diseases. 

"We would omit it if it were not for the fact that a large train 
of maladies have their origin in this disease. 

When we stop to think of the many afflictions that can be 
traced to this cause, we realize how important it is to under¬ 
stand its nature so that prevention may be taught where cure 
is hopeless. Take any one of fifty known modern diseases, 
paresis for example, or any other, and study its relation to 
syphilis, and you will understand the sway which this fearful 
scourge has on mankind to-day. Paresis is paralysis of the 
brain, and its victims are taken out of the world long before 
their life should end; and this malady can be directly traced 
to syphilis in eighty-three cases out of every one hundred; with 
probably the other seventeen influenced by the trouble. Spe¬ 
cialists in infantile paralysis assert that this affliction is charged 
to that cause; but it probably requires not only such origin but 
a wicked diet for children to account for it; in other words, 
both syphilis and a bad diet combine to produce infantile 
paralysis. Locomotor-ataxia is undoubtedly due to inherited 
syphilis; so is epilepsy, which seems to be on the increase, as 
there are over half a million patients in this country suffering 
from that malady. Had there never been any syphilis there 
never would have been any epilepsy, nor locomotor-ataxia, nor 
paresis in all probability. 

Yet these troubles are but the beginning of the train that 
follows this one horror. A medical congress declared that this 
scourge alone stood responsible for ninety-eight percent of all 
inherited diseases. It is a terrible arraignment. What is more 
feared than cancer! Yet if there had never been any syphilis 


Nature’s Doctors 


215 


there would never have been any cancer. The latter comes 
both directly and remotely from the former. 

This most horrible and filthy venereal disease arises from 
direct contamination with a person who is suffering from it in 
an early stage; or else is inherited from one who had it and 
who transmitted it at birth; the father or mother being the 
victims; or else it came from a grandparent through a parent, 
or still further back, as the iniquities of the fathers are visited 
upon the children of the third and the fourth generations. 
Locomotor-ataxia, paresis and epilepsy generally come from 
one generation back; cancer from the second, third or fourth 
generation back. Ulcers, tumors, skin diseases and similar 
troubles are all due to syphilitic blood inherited from parent 
or grandparent. 

You can see now why we are compelled to discuss this malady; 
to omit it would be to omit the discussion of many diseases. 

It eats the blood by slow degrees; it bursts out on the body in 
cancerous sores; it rots away the soft bones; the nose cartilage 
decays under the skin; the larynx suffers likewise in the throat; 
and the whole being is submerged in a sea of semi-ulcerous 
affliction. 

This is the direct stage. It takes time to develop these re¬ 
sults, and while they are in process the victim marries and off¬ 
spring are born. 

The danger to the world is not from the direct stage; but 
from the offspring, and the children and grandchildren of the 
latter. The malady in the direct stage was an epidemic through¬ 
out all Europe in the fifteenth century, chiefly between the years 
1450 and 1500; it is claimed that all the children born in that 
period and for another half century following, were diseased. 
But in the sixteenth century the use of mercury had reduced 
the first awful results in large degree without lessening the in¬ 
herited taint. 

It is this taint that has come down in the blood that brings 
so many diseases to the race to-day. In six generations it runs 
its course except that it leaves its cancerous danger in ever 
lessening degree, but still to be feared. 

A man who has led a clean life, whose parents both led clean 
lives, and whose grandparents all led clean lives, and whose 
great-grandparents all led clean lives, that is free from the 


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Complete Life Building 

direct stage, is sure to be free from inherited taint, and would 
not fall victim to cancer if a more remote taint existed, not 
even if he used tobacco; but history shows that such a man 
could not be induced to use tobacco. In other words where 
the generations number four, all having lived clean lives, there 
would be a complete hatred for tobacco in this generation. Hence 
cancer could not be possible. 

Yet it is a well known fact to doctors that cigarette smokers 
possess more than fifty percent of syphilic taint and blood 
poison; most of them exceeding even sixty percent of this malig¬ 
nant inheritance. Here is a typical report: A leading specialist 
in the treatment of this disease said, “I made tests in one 
month of 168 men and women. Of this number, 139 were 
tainted with a very high percentage of the diseases and were 
unfit to marry or associate with the opposite sex; and of this 
group of 139 so afflicted, every one was a slave to the cigarette 
habit. The remaining twenty-nine were not only free from 
the taint in serious form, but every one of them was free from 
the cigarette habit; yet of the latter number, seven smoked 
cigars or pipes.’’ 

Another expert said, “I have met thousands of patients, 
many of them among the social and wealthy classes, and I have 
never seen a man or woman who smoked cigarettes who was 
not tainted in excessive degree with syphilis either inherited or 
acquired; and I have never seen a man or woman who was 
afflicted with this repulsive disease who did not readily take up 
the cigarette habit. They crave tobacco, and must have it in 
almost continuous use, and cigarettes are the only way they 
can thus be served.’’ The declaration of a very prominent 
expert is worth remembering: “When I see a man who is prom¬ 
inent in the business world, or in some other walk of life, smok¬ 
ing cigarettes, I know that he is carrying in his blood the sins 
of parents or grandparents, for which he is not to blame; but I 
should abhor the prospect of having him wed a daughter of 
mine. When I see a woman who is prominent in the social set, 
or who stands high in some profession, smoking cigarettes, I 
know tfyat she is carrying in her blood sixty percent or more 
of malignant cancerous or ulcerous taint inherited from parents 
or grandparents for which she is not to blame; but I should 
abhor the prospect of having her wed any decent male friend 


Nature’s Doctors 


217 


or relative of mine. There is not living to-day any woman who 
smokes cigarettes who has blood fit for marriage or association 
with the opposite sex. These may seem strong words, but they 
can be proved to be true.” 

There are whole nations who are victims of syphilis inherited 
or acquired; and they are likewise addicted to the cigarette 
habit, man, woman and child, without exception; one hundred 
percent syphilitic, and one hundred percent cigarette slaves. 

There are certain peoples who have never been willing to 
take up the cigarette habit, and to this day not one of them is 
syphilitic; these facts are within easy proof. 

Private statistics show that four times as many young men 
as young women are syphilitic; and show at the same time that 
four times as many young men as young women, when sub¬ 
jected to the temptation to smoke cigarettes, become slaves to 
this tobacco habit of intensive smoking. 'When you find a young 
man or man who is not addicted to the cigarette habit, after 
being given the opportunity to acquire it, you can rest assured 
that he is clean in blood, and free from syphilis. No other test 
is really necessary. It may seem strange that this habit should 
be allied to the most horrible and most malignant of all filthy 
diseases; but facts are facts; the two go together; the fearful 
unrest, and the nervous craving, eating into mind and body, 
when once it meets the soothing poison of the cigarette, must 
ever after cling to that poison, just as the alcoholic slave must 
have alcohol, and the drug fiend must have the drugs that still 
the rasping torment of brain and blood. 


CONSTITUTIONAL ‘‘SYMPTOMS OF DANGER” 

We do not believe that a well person should seek symptoms 
of sickness. But all incurable diseases are, at a certain time 
in life, curable; and their attacks may be wholly overcome if 
met with resistance before it is too late. In the history of every 
hopeless case, there has always been a period of escape that has 
been neglected. 

1. PULSE.—The heart-beats may be counted at the wrist 
and other parts of the body, and indicate the condition of the 
circulation. The action of the heart itself, and the health of 



218 


Complete Life Building 

its valves may be easily determined by instruments that mag¬ 
nify to the ear the sounds within. In like manner, the health 
of the lungs and of the air-passages may be ascertained. 

2. TEMPERATURE.—The heat and fever of the body may 
be learned by thermometers placed in various parts of the body, 
and in the mouth; as well as by the hand of the physician who 
is experienced. 

3. THE COATED TONGUE.—This old form of evidence of 
the state of the liver and stomach, and even of the other organs, 
is still one of the most reliable methods of giving warning. It 
is a safe rule to say that no person should neglect a coated 
tongue. It should be clean at all times, and clean clear through 
to the throat. Take danger by the forelock and drive away 
the enemy that is lurking within the organic life of the body. 

4. THE EYE-BALL.—The white of the eye should be clean 
and clear. If it is muddy, find the cause and cure it. Neglect 
is dangerous. The pupil of the eye, which is the center through 
which the light passes, holds the secret of sanity and insanity 
in many cases, and of the nervous troubles that are brewing in 
the life of the individual. 

5. INSIDE THE EYE.—Such a malady as Bright’s disease, 
which when advanced is incurable, first shows itself in the in¬ 
terior of the eye, and it does not require very expert knowledge 
to behold the presence of the most dreaded of all dangers next to 
cancer. There are many instances where the approach of this 
terrible enemy has been discovered before the malady had 
reached the incurable stage; and perfect health has been there¬ 
by attained. Surely no man or woman can be blamed for hunt¬ 
ing for these opportunities of self-preservation. 

6. The CIRCULATION of the blood comes nearest to the 
surface and vision under the finger nails than at any other 
part of the body. It is as though the nails were panes of glass 
over the blood. 

7. When the blood is pure and the heart healthy, the nails 
are pink in color and this hue is even, not changed in parts. 

8. When a deep tinge of purple appears at the base of the 
nails it is sure evidence that the heart is affected; and this fact 
is made more important when the skin within the hand is pur¬ 
ple-shaded. No time should be lost in seeking a cure for the 
impending danger. 



ELEVENTH SECTION 


THE TRUE FOODS 



r^-AVING LED UP in the preceding pages of this book 
to the consideration of the foods that make a per¬ 


fect body, we now purpose to list and describe them, 
after which we shall apply their uses in the great 
task ahead. This group of eatables does not look 
large nor seem tempting. But when we feed the most valuable 
horse, whose money price is half a million dollars, we do not 
give him a diet of unlimited variety. The doctor who is 
charged with the duty of keeping him in perfect health, knows 
that a few things are best, whereas a great number of different 
things would ruin the animal. Of course man is not of the 
same class as the horse; some men are more intelligent, some 
are less; but it is a fact that man could live better on a half 
dozen kinds of food than on a hundred. 

We now present three lists of TRUE FOODS: 

1. The TRUE FOODS of ultimate civilization. 

2. The TRUE FOODS as we find them. 

3. The CURATIVE POWER of TRUE FOODS. 


What is meant by ultimate civilization is that stage in the 
development of human intelligence when man will insist on the 
conditions that are within his grasp to-day, but which he lacks 
the mental interest to obtain. These blessings are not out of 
reach; in fact they are close at hand; but no one seems to care 
whether or not they are secured; so they are lost by default. 

219 










220 Complete Life Building 

THE TRUE FOODS OF ULTIMATE CIVILIZATION 

1. Whole wheat flour with the germ retained, and the rough 
coats of the outer bran removed. 

2. White corn meal with the germ retained. 

3. White flour free from bleach and lime. 

4. Eggs from hens fed only with pure food. 

5. Flake tapioca. 

6. Whole rice. 

7. Raw milk absolutely clean; and cream and butter from 
same. 

8. Distilled water aerated. 

9. Canned vegetables known to be free from dangerous 
preservatives. 

The above are not all the TRUE FOODS. They are those 
that are not obtained to-day in their best form for yielding 
good health and long life. 

No mental state of indifference is so marked as that which 
will permit six billions of dollars a year to be wasted in this 
nation alone by loss of time, ill health, drugs, doctors, nurses, 
hospitals and operations, when the sum of money paid out in 
the last two years for football tickets, over one hundred million 
dollars in two seasons of a few weeks each, to witness a sport, 
would be more than sufficient to secure all the above nine bless¬ 
ings permanently for the entire nation. Just think of the kind 
of brain, the kind of mind, the kind of so-called intelligence 
that will throw away six thousand million dollars every year, 
and accept with indifference the suffering, the loss of loved 
ones and premature deaths everywhere, that could have been 
averted by the expenditure of the price of football tickets for 
two brief seasons! 

But humanity is humanity. 

It does no good to persist in this line of discussion. 

As long as humanity is humanity so long will men and 
women continue to endure agonizing pain and bury their dead 
in untimely graves, instead of doing the simplest thing to pre¬ 
vent these disasters. But the time will come when men and 
women who have useless millions of money will make it do the 
work of ultimate civilization. 

We will briefly refer to the nine items of the TRUE FOODS 


Nature’s Doctors 221 

that are to-day within the reach of the people, but which they 
will not accept: 

1. WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR.—The white part of the wheat 
grain makes a bread that will rise and that will make toast, 
which are the two great essentials of bread; but it is a badly 
unbalanced food which, by actual tests, if fed alone to animals 
will produce death in a short time. It is the cause of constipa¬ 
tion which itself is the cause of poisons of the most serious 
nature in the human body. On the other hand, the so-called 
whole wheat flour contains the rough hulls of the grain, and 
sets up congestion throughout the entire alimentary canal, do¬ 
ing even more harm than the white flour bread. Millers will 
not retain the germ of the wheat grain for the reason that it 
causes the flour to spoil too soon; and thus they discard the 
most vitalizing agency in the wheat. There is no flour on sale 
to-day that meets the requirements of Nature. 

The remedy is the small mill in every section of the land; 
and a mill capable of removing the rough husks while retaining 
the value of the bran and the germ. We know of no such mills 
in America. Before the recent war they were in use in Europe, 
and were called the Schweitzer process mills; and it was said 
there was one in almost every family. We do not know where 
they can be obtained, nor the address of the makers. But about 
twenty-five years ago.the U. S. Government issued a bulletin 
fully describing them; and their use was advocated by Dr. 
Harvey Wiley, of Washington, D. C., when Chief United 
States Chemist. It was proved that the flour made in that way 
could support life indefinitely, as well as such animals that 
would have died from the use of the white flour now in use in 
America. The bread so made had a better flavor than thc.t now 
eaten here, and contained the value and power of meat, eggs 
and milk. 

Let some wealthy person investigate this matter, and see that 
the right kind of flour mill is constructed; this could be housed 
in a small building. The use of gasoline and oil engines is now 
so common that the expense would be very slight; and one such 
mill would serve as many families as cared to patronize it. 
Freshly ground wheat flour has a flavor that is very attractive; 
then the assurance of purity is worth something. But first 
ascertain the kind of mill needed. A visit to Paris, France, 


222 


Complete Life Building 

might yield this information for prior to the war, many thous¬ 
ands of such mills were in use there. 

2. WHOLE CORN MEAL.—The corn meal that the public 
now buys has the germ removed. When the germ is retained, 
the meal spoils in a few weeks. But the germ is large and 
valuable, holding more real vitality than the rest of the grain. 
It has to be sacrificed so that the worthless part of the meal 
may be kept for sale. The remedy is to grind often and supply 
the demand of a few families once a month or oftener. 

3. PURE WHITE FLOUR.—Some of the States have re¬ 
cently legislated against bleaching flour. This crime is how¬ 
ever permitted by the Government in order not to interfere 
with business activities. When all politicians are driven out 
of office; when it shall be a law that no officeholder shall be 
re-elected to any office after one term; then there will be legis¬ 
lation in favor of the health of the people instead of the health 
of the pocketbook. It is the hope of being re-elected that 
changes would-be statesmen into dishonest politicians. Ask a 
Senator what he is in office for; and he will tell you, if he speaks 
the truth, “for re-election. ,, Ask any Representative what he 
is in office for; and he will tell you, if he speaks the truth, 
“for re-election.’’ All their speeches, all their deeds, their 
whole conduct and their activities, are focused on the one end, 
“re-election.’’ Thus the honest man of worthy ambitions, is 
compelled to become one hundred percent dishonest in order to 
lay plans, pull wires and follow only one inspired hope, “re- 
election.” 

The American people are eating bleached flour; and much of 
the flour contains lime ground as fine as the finest flour; it is 
very beautiful; a work of art; but a deadly imposition con¬ 
cocted in the interests of unearned dividends. 

Set up a small mill, if you are able to do so, and thus over¬ 
come the three great stumbling blocks to the highest form of 
health; the same mill can give you the whole wheat flour, and 
the corn meal. The bright inventor who will create the right 
kind of a mill, which need not be large, might become a mil¬ 
lionaire by his invention. 

4. EGGS FROM CLEANLY FED HENS.—The hen is a 
natural scavenger, preferring worms, bugs, spiders and filth to 
clean food. But we have seen and have kept hens that were 


Nature’s Doctors 


223 


fed only as the owner chose to feed them, and the eggs from 
such feeding are quite different in taste and quality from those 
fed by the hens themselves. Many persons know they are poi¬ 
soned by eggs, whether the latter are cooked or raw. Blood 
tests show this fact, and doctors have ordered such patients to 
omit this kind of food from their diet. It is probably true that 
eggs from hens that feed themselves as scavengers, are poison¬ 
ous to all persons; and it is probably true that eggs from hens 
fed with only clean food are never a poison to any one. If you 
establish a flour and meal mill, you will have on hand a goodly 
amount of grain feed for a large poultry colony. Thus you 
will secure four results in one line of activity. 

5. FLAKE TAPIOCA.—This is a very light and easily di¬ 
gested food, which should always be eaten with cream. Sago 
is also recommended for a light food. Both these articles are 
going out of use to make way for 4 ‘pearl tapioca” which is a 
spurious food, being made from old and abandoned waxy pota¬ 
toes, wholly unfit for the stomach. The starch from the pota¬ 
toes is cooked and when solid is molded into small pellets. 
The profit of making them is great; but the retail stores reap a 
large gain from selling them. For this reason the dealers are 
eager to handle them in place of pure food; as they are eager 
to sell tuna fish in place of salmon. 

It is the old story of sacrificing health on the altar of the 
pocketbook. 

6. WHOLE RICE.—This grain is one of the most important 
of all the products of the earth as a food for humanity; but 
when deprived of its coat or covering, it is one of the most 
poisonous when eaten by itself. We do not know where you 
can buy whole rice; but it is for sale in many places in Amer¬ 
ica. Avoid polished rice. Avoid unpolished rice as such, for 
it still is the inside of the grain only. Brown rice is the right 
kind. Any wholesale grocery, or any large mailing house may 
give you the information necessary to lead you to it. But it is 
worth getting even at an advanced cost. 

7. RAW CLEAN MILK.—As has been stated the habit of 
sterilizing milk changes it from a life building food to a mere 
life sustaining food. It is better to do this than to use it in an 
unclean condition. But if you set up a flour mill somewhere, 
it may be possible to have as adjuncts to that enterprise a poul- 


224 


Complete Life Building 

try yard and a dairy farm of a few acres. This is getting in 
close touch with Nature; but the idea is delightful even if vi¬ 
sionary. There are whole peoples who find happiness and health 
by such methods. Butter and cream are necessary. 

8. DISTILLED WATER AERATED.—Well water is likely 
to hurry old age ripening on account of its excess of mineral 
matter. All other water is surface water except springs. Un¬ 
der the head of Diabetes you will read of the damage done by 
surface water. Rain water is distilled by rising vapors, and is 
aerated by falling through the air to the ground. It is Nature’s 
greatest blessing; but is not palatable because it picks up dirt 
from the air, which gives it a bad taste and odor. Man has for 
some time imitated this plan of Nature by distilling water; 
but like his efforts to get whole wheat flour, he has stopped on 
the wrong side of success. Distilled water is a poison until 
it is aerated; after which it is an improvement on the best 
rain water ever produced. 

We do not know where there are any water stills for sale; 
but they are easily made. The same kind of a still that will 
make whiskey will serve to distill water. Some day there will 
be a surplus of whiskey stills lying about; for some day the 
American people will wake up to the fact that the very exist¬ 
ence of our national life depends on obedience to the laws; and 
a widespread disregard for the laws means national suicide and 
the death of true liberty. That brand of freedom which is 
known as personal liberty always encroaches on the rights of the 
people as a whole, and sounds the death knell of genuine 
freedom. 

If you construct the flour mill suggested herein, it will be a 
very easy matter to add a water still; and the product can be 
aerated by dropping it from an elevation of eight feet or more, 
from one receptacle into another. 

9. CANNED VEGETABLES.—All canned goods now on 
sale in the stores are adulterated with preservatives that tend 
to cause neuritis. All canned goods made at home by the boil¬ 
ing method alone, are free from such dangers. Canned vege¬ 
tables are very necessary to the health in the season when the 
fresh kinds are not to be had. If you are not able to can them 
in your own house, why not arrange for the flour mill company 
to do the work? They will have the heat and conveniences. 


Nature’s Doctors 


225 


HEALTH COMMUNITIES 


In that far away era when the world will witness the dawn 
of an ultimate civilization, when ordinary common sense will 
take a higher rank in public attention than frivolities, the es¬ 
tablishment of Health Communities will become universal. 
People who dwell in cities will either drift into the country, 
or will have business connections with those who are of the 
country; and then there will be nothing difficult in setting up 
a mill where every one can secure milk, flour, meal, eggs and 
distilled water in absolute purity. 

By so doing they will have obtained the greatest of all foods 
in their best quality; and thus have laid the foundation of per¬ 
fect health and an indefinite prolongation of life on earth. 
Fed with such high grade foods, aided by distilled aerated 
water, the body will not ripen into age. 

But this change for the best will not occur in your lifetime 
nor ours. The very small number of people who are inter¬ 
ested in such undertakings will never start anything worth 
while. A hundred thousand persons every year take fake 
courses of instruction by mail in health betterment, who are 
too lazy mentally to move in the right direction. 

As this period of the world’s history will not witness the 
advance towards the true foods of ultimate civilization, we are 
compelled to do the next best thing, and take 

THE TRUE FOODS AS WE FIND THEM. 

By so doing, instead of throwing up our hands in despair, 
we try to accommodate our battle for perfect health to the con¬ 
ditions that confront us. HERE ARE 

THE TRUE FOODS AS WE FIND THEM 

1. WHEAT PUDDING. 

2. RAW WHEAT VEGETABLE CELLS. 

3. BREAD. 

4. OATMEAL. 

5. RAW OAT VEGETABLE CELLS. 

6. WHITE MEAL. 

7. MILK. 



226 Complete Life Building 

8. CREAM; also ice cream only when home made. 

9. BUTTER. 

10. BUTTERMILK. 

11. HOMINY. 

12. FLAKE TAPIOCA. 

13. BAKED WHITE POTATOES, with skins when young. 

14. BAKED SWEET APPLES. 

15. RAW WHITES OF EGGS. 

16. POWDERED YOLKS OF EGGS. 

17. BEEF; always rare. 

18. MUTTON; and old lamb. 

19. RED SALMON, fresh if possible; otherwise canned. 

20. FISH, fresh only. 

21. RICE. 

22. LETTUCE. 

23. ASPARAGUS. 

24. CELERY. 

25. SPINACH, only when young and tender. 

26. BEETS, very young. 

27. CARROTS, very young. 

28. GREEN PEAS, very young; or limas. 

29. STRING BEANS, fresh or canned. 

30. SUGAR CORN. 

31. ONIONS BOILED. 

32. ORANGES, red, deeply colored, sweet and very ripe. 

33. PINEAPPLE JUICE. 

34. CHERRIES, red or black, and fully ripe. 

35. PEACHES, red and very mellow. 

36. GRAPES, red or black, royal juice only. 

37. RAISINS. 

38. DATES. 

39. FIGS. 

40. SUGAR. 

41. MOLASSES. 

42. HONEY. 

It will be seen that all the foods of ultimate civilization are 
included in the list just given, for they belong there. The only 
reason for discussing them separately is that they are not to be 
had to-day in their best condition; they can be improved; and 


Nature’s Doctors 227 

for that reason they should receive special attention. But we 
must do the best we can with what we have. 

Where the uses and value of the foods have just been con¬ 
sidered they need not be repeated as we go on. So we will ex¬ 
plain the facts that pertain to the others only. 

A FIRELESS COOKER.—Not merely as a cooker which is 
really important, but also to save the cost of fuel in these al¬ 
most fuelless times, every wide awake family should have a 
fireless cooker. We do not know where they can be bought. 
We never have anything for sale, nor are we agents for the 
sale of anything. But as fireless cookers are getting as abun¬ 
dant as stoves, they can be found in any one of thousands of 
stores. 

1. WHEAT PUDDING.—Get whole wheat with all the bran 
in. It is better to deal with some flouring mill as near at hand 
as possible, so that you may feel sure the flour has not been 
limed; and whole wheat flour is not likely to be bleached. 
Take a coarse sieve and sift this flour so that the coarse bran 
will not come through. Then take the coarse bran and use a 
mortar and pestles, or any pounding outfit such as all cooks pos¬ 
sess. Pound the coarse bran until all the flour contents are 
free; then sift this, saving the finer part, and giving the coarser 
result to the poultry. 

The flour thus retained is to be cooked and treated exactly 
as you would oatmeal; cooking it in the afternoon or evening, 
placing it in the fireless cooker, letting it cook all night, and 
in the morning toasting it to almost a brown by stirring it over 
a hot stove for a few minutes; and serving it hot with sugar 
and cream. It is delicious if well toasted, and most health in¬ 
spiring. Next best to Wheat Pudding is shredded wheat eaten 
with rich milk or cream, and no sugar. 

2. RAW WHEAT VEGETABLE CELLS.—The word 
vegetable is employed here to indicate that this food contains 
all its minerals in the form of cells that have been grown by 
plant impulses, to distinguish it from minerals that are given 
in the form of drugs and medicines that have had no vegetable 
organic life. Thus iron in vegetable cells is very necessary to 
humanity; but as a mineral only it will cause tuberculosis of 
the lungs. 

RAW FOODS.—There was a fad in vogue some years ago 


228 Complete Life Building 

in which the eating of cereal grains in a raw state was advo¬ 
cated. All fads, no matter how silly they really are in their 
entirety, generally contain one or more points of value. It is 
true that whole wheat grains, whole rice grains and whole oats 
have very important elements that are assimilated if eaten raw; 
but no human being is able to properly masticate them; and so 
the fad fell through. The item of value however may be se¬ 
cured by a treatment that has been tested and found good in 
many hospitals. 

Take any quantity you wish of bran; pour cold water on it 
and let it stand for an hour; then strain it through one thick¬ 
ness of cheesecloth and discard the part that remains in the 
cloth. The water should be in bulk the same as the bran; quart 
for quart. When cold, for every quart of contents remaining, 
press into it the juice of two good sized lemons. See if the 
flavor appeals to you without sweetening; if not, add as much 
sugar as you would in making lemonade. Drink it when ice 
cold; sipping slowly. By taking a glass daily of this drink you 
can use white flour bread, as the lost minerals are restored. 

3. BREAD has been well discussed in various parts of this 
book; but it is best eaten when three days old, and toasted on 
both sides. If you take the raw wheat vegetable cells you can 
have white bread always. 

4. OATMEAL.—This is prepared and cooked in the same 
manner as Wheat Pudding which we have just described. 

5. RAW OAT VEGETABLE CELLS.—Follow the same 
method with ordinary oatmeal that is stated above for RAW 
WHEAT. 

6. WHITE MEAL.—The white variety of com is less oily 
and more easily digested than the yellow kind; although in 
very cold weather the latter is more warming. The difference, 
however, is slight. 

7. MILK.—As we have explained in previous pages, milk 
should never be drank; always eat it. This means mix it with 
toasted bread, or cereals, potatoes, or other things. 

8. CREAM.—What is true of milk is also true of cream. 

9. BUTTER.—Avoid imitations of this food; especially those 
that come from the vegetable kingdom, as it is well known that 
all vegetable fats are useless as food. Even olive oil is merely 
a lubricant. The world needs more cows; and every farmer 


Nature’s Doctors 


229 


and dairy man should make it a rule never to kill a heifer that 
is in good health, nor a cow until she is too old to breed good 
stock. This should be the written or un-written law. 

10. BUTTERMILK.—This is probably the best of all foods 
because it contains in less bulky form nearly all the value of 
milk. 

11. HOMINY.—This is the coarse kind. Avoid the grits. 

12. FLAKE TAPIOCA.—This has been discussed in a 
previous page of this Section. 

13. BAKED WHITE POTATOES.—Have them of good 
quality, the Cobblers being the best the year round. Have 
them mealy. Bake until cooked through. Peel the light flakey 
skin from the bark; do not disturb the latter. The skin is 
thinner than tissue paper. Remember that the good of the 
potato is in the bark, and directly under it; and that the center 
is of almost no food value. Cut the good portion into bits, salt 
to suit the taste, and add cream if you can get it; otherwise 
milk. Here is a perfect food when so combined, that will sup¬ 
port life indefinitely. 

14. BAKED SWEET APPLES.—Find apples that are fully 
ripe and very mellow; no other kind will do. Bake in oven 
and dress occasionally with brown sugar to make a syrup. 
When done, allow to cool; serve with cream and the syrup that 
was made in the baking; and avoid the inside third. This 
means to eat the skin and the royal flesh. The latter is that 
portion of the apple that is located between the skin and the 
core section. You will find a line of demarcation showing 
where the core section begins; all within it is a poison. It is 
generally two inches in diameter in an average sized apple. 

15. RAW WHITES OF EGGS.—This part of an egg is 
wholly indigestible and worthless as food unless it has been 
cooked about four hours. But when raw it is almost blood; 
being the next step to it. It is never digested, as it will be 
absorbed by the glands of the throat, or picked up by the walls 
of the stomach before there is time for the action of the gas¬ 
tric juice, which makes it of the highest value as a food. More 
than this it heals a congested throat, or stomach, and is a well 
known aid in a case of poisoned stomach. When the latter 
organ is dry, that is, lacking its digestive fluids, the whites of 
eggs will nourish the body for a long time. 


230 


Complete Life Building 

16. POWDERED YOLKS OF EGGS.—The interior of an 
egg seems to be a wholly different kind of food from the white. 
The yolk should be cooked for one hour in boiling water; then 
allowed to get cold; and, when it is to be used, it should be 
grated and spread on toasted bread, with some black pepper 
and salt to taste. 

17. BEEF.—This and mutton are the only two meats that 
can be called life-builders. Other kinds sustain life, but do not 
advance its health or vital energy. Beef and mutton do both. 
Beef should never have the red or pink color cooked out of it; 
the nearer to a raw condition the greater its food value. One 
very good way to feed it to a person who is suffering from 
anaemia is to chop it when raw, spread it on toast, add black 
pepper and salt to taste; then set it in a very hot oven for a 
quick heating of the surface of the meat. This is a splendid 
dish, and much liked. 

18. MUTTON.—This should be used as a roast, but not 
cooked rare, nor yet too well done. A light suggestion of pink 
color should remain. 

19. RED SALMON.—This fish is suited to a healthy stom¬ 
ach, and is highly stimulating. It is better when fresh; but in 
a canned state it should be used once every three days through¬ 
out the year, but in small quantities. It has too much power¬ 
making energy for an ordinary person to be eaten too freely. 
Often and very little at a time is the rule. We speak of the 
canned salmon because we know it is hardly possible to fin d 
the fresh kind; at least not often. 

20. FISH.—Fresh fish is wholesome and should be used 
boiled if possible; otherwise baked, but not fried. 

21. RICE.—This has been discussed in several parts of this 
book. We strongly advise you to look in the Index and seek 
all references to this food, as it is the key to many health 
questions. 

22. LETTUCE.—Eat this leaf raw. Wash it well, as it car¬ 
ries germs of typhoid and other maladies. 

23. ASPARAGUS.—This vegetable is, next to lettuce, the 
most valuable in its medical qualities of all foods. Eat it daily 
in small quantities during the season when it is fresh; and can 
all you are able to find in a state fit to be put up for winter 


Nature’s Doctors 


231 


24. CELERY.—This should be eaten raw if liked; but when 
cooked it is best in a puree with milk. 

25. SPINACH.—Here we have the king of cooked leaves as 
food. It should be young and tender, and thoroughly cooked, 
then chopped fine and eaten with butter and salt, with some 
black pepper for flavoring it. It contains some iron and min¬ 
erals in minute quantities; and is also slightly laxative. It 
also stimulates a natural action of the intestinal canal apart 
from relieving constipation. 

26. BEETS should be eaten when very young, fresh or 
canned. 

27. CARROTS should be eaten when very young, fresh or 
canned. 

28. GREEN PEAS are valuable when quite small, but are 
to be avoided by all persons except laborers otherwise. 

29. STRING BEANS if of the green flesh round podded 
varieties, are very valuable all seasons of the year. Avoid the 
other kinds. It has taken thirty years of experiment to pro¬ 
duce a variety of string beans that contain their food in their 
flesh, or the part that surrounds the beans. The beans them¬ 
selves do not have much value; and the old kinds that had an 
indigestible stringy shell, were an inferior food. 

30. SUGAR CORN in season, and some tender varieties 
canned will be found a pleasant change of importance. When 
eaten on the ear, use plenty of butter and salt. 

31. ONIONS.—These should be boiled and never cooked in 
any other way. They may be dressed in milk or butter with 
salt and black pepper added. 

32. ORANGES.—There are yellow and there are red 
oranges; and there are sweet and there are sour oranges. Only 
the deeply colored sweet varieties are good; the others may set 
up rheumatism, piles or gastric troubles. The old idea of eat¬ 
ing an orange was on an empty stomach, or just before a meal, 
or as the first course. But the leading hotels have caught the 
idea that they serve to aid digestion, and should follow a meal. 
Since vitamins were discovered, it has been learned that red 
sweet oranges are rich in this value, and all vitamin values are 
best to mix into the food in the stomach; so if eaten in advance 
their juice has long been absent, and their value cannot be 


232 


Complete Life Building 

fully obtained. The juice of a sweet orange sipped during and 
after a meal is very helpful in many ways. 

33. PINEAPPLE JUICE.—Besides being an aid to driving 
germs from a sore throat, this juice if mixed with sugar will 
reduce congestion of the throat and stomach. Never eat any 
of the fiber. 

34. CHERRIES.—The body needs iron, and red or black 
cherries contain this in a most wholesome form, if very ripe 
and mellow. 

35. PEACHES should be deeply colored and mellow. 

36. GRAPES.—Like cherries these should be deeply colored, 
and only the Royal Flesh used when taken raw; or the skins 
and Royal Flesh when made into preserves, or grape butter. 
This Royal Flesh is that part of the flesh and juice that is 
found between the skin and the pulp. It is obtained by allow¬ 
ing the fruit to be pressed enough to draw out all the contents 
without bringing force against the pulp. Like the core section 
of an apple, the pulp is a poison. It costs more to use only 
a part of such fruit and discard the rest; but sickness costs 
even more. 

37. RAISINS.—Only the large varieties are to be used. The 
small kinds and currants should be avoided. Raisins are good 
raw or cooked. 

38. DATES.—These are a highly important food, and should 
be eaten raw when wanted, or cooked with rice, whole wheat 
pudding, or other thing. 

39. FIGS.—These may be eaten like dates. 

40. SUGAR.—Either white or brown sugar may be used, the 
brown being better. 

41. MOLASSES, either dark or of medium color, should be 
used when possible. 

42. HONEY is the only animal sweet that Nature furnishes, 
and is highly useful in a raw state. It has the advantage over 
sugar and molasses in that it holds its vegetable cells in animal 
form as originally taken from the plant world. No real animal 
structure exists, however, in honey. Its other advantage is that 
it is not sterilized by heat or cooking, and it brings us that 
closer to Nature. It should follow a meal by being eaten spread 
on small squares of bread after the rest of the meal has ended, 


Nature’s Doctors 233 

but as a part of it. Do not use the comb, as it will gum up 
your insides. 

THE TRUE FOODS MUST BE BALANCED 

Everything that is a true food is not necessarily life sus¬ 
taining when taken alone; although some are complete in them¬ 
selves. To animals that live in the fields, Nature gives grass 
which is a complete food for that kind of life. So whole wheat, 
and oats, with possibly one or two other things, will sustain 
human life, because they contain all the needed elements of the 
body. It cannot be said that these things have come about by 
accident; they prove clearly the presence of a directing power 
that is wise and efficient. 

The following TRUE FOODS alone or in the simple com¬ 
binations will give complete sustenance; and if you are inter¬ 
ested in one-food meals, they may be so used. This does not 
mean that one food for all the meals is to be used, like grass 
all the time for cattle and animals that live in the fields all sea¬ 
son through; but that at any one meal you may, if you wish, 
use only one of the following plans: 

Wheat Pudding. 

Raw wheat vegetable cells. See the description in the pre¬ 
ceding pages for this and other articles. While this one article 
would keep a strong man alive, it is not recommended alone 
even at one meal. It is given here, like several others, because 
it is a completely balanced food. 

White bread alone will not do. Eat with it either potatoes, 
or meat, fish, salmon, or eggs; and the bread needs butter or 
fruit, such as is made in the form of butter or preserves. 

Oatmeal is a perfect food if cooked three hours or all night 
in a fireless cooker. 

Raw oat vegetable cells. The remarks concerning wheat vege¬ 
table cells above apply here. 

White meal. This is better than white bread, but should be 
balanced in the same way as stated above. 

Milk. This alone, if rich, will sustain life, but being bulky 
needs bread, meal or potatoes to go with it. Milk should never 
be drank, but sipped slowly, or mixed with bread, meal or 
potatoes. 


234 


Complete Life Building 

Hominy. Do not use pearl hominy; get the large flake size, 
known in some stores as samp. What is said of white bread 
applies here; but it is a fact that milk and hominy, if the 
milk is rich, make one of the best evening meals in warm 
weather, with no other food added. This is a fine example 
of a one-food meal. Milk, cream, butter, honey, fruit preserves, 
sugar, molasses, dates, raisins and figs may always be added, one 
or more of them at least, to any one-food meal and not change 
it from being that kind of a meal. Thus bread and grape 
butter, with a glass of rich milk, make a perfect one-food meal 
for evening. Here we have given two such meals for the close 
of the day. You can invent many more. 

Make Tapioca. This is rather a delicacy. Do not use pearl 
tapioca, as it is made of old waxy potatoes pressed into molds, 
and is a source of congestion, differing wholly from the flake 
kind, which is very helpful. But being an unbalanced food, flake 
tapioca must be eaten with cream, and some other food added, 
especially potatoes, using the flesh close under and adhering to 
the skin of the tuber, with cream also. Here we have a third 
evening one-food meal. You will notice that we call it a one- 
food meal when there are two or more articles that are exactly 
alike, or nearly so. For a powerful breakfast when the day’s 
work is to be strenuous, oatmeal and -whole wheat, with milk 
or cream, and nothing added, would suffice; but such a meal 
in the evening would result in sleeplessness. 

Potatoes. There is but one perfect way to cook these tubers; 
that is to bake them. If a person is young, or if an adult has 
a delicate stomach, it is not best to eat the skin; but the only 
really valuable part of the potato is close to the skin; and this 
is best for all stomachs, no matter how delicate. If we had 
our way we would use only the proportion of one half of the 
potato; that is half way between the center and the skin; tak¬ 
ing the skin half, and keeping all the flesh that clings to the 
skin. As the diameter is much greater in that half, it re¬ 
sults in really using about eighty percent of the whole flesh of 
the potato. Only a small part is lost; but this part is guilty 
of many things; notably of causing gall stones and calcareous 
deposits in other places. The flesh that lies close under the 
skin is as near a perfect food as one can find, if eaten with 
salt and cream. It will support life for years, almost in- 


Nature’s Doctors 


235 


definitely. You may not know it, but it is a fact that in some 
hospitals where epidemics have brought many sufferers, they 
make a soup largely of nothing but the skins of potatoes; and 
find it healing. 

Baked sweet apples. These with cream, eating only the same 
proportion of the apple that we have suggested for the potato, 
including the skins unless the stomach is very delicate, make 
a first course for an evening meal; but is unbalanced, and re¬ 
quires some of the foods we have mentioned, or headaches will 
follow; and neuralgia is the penalty of too much fruit, with 
too little of the substantial food, as a basis. 

Raw whites of eggs. When you cook the white of an egg 
you destroy its food value and furnish an irritant that causes 
congestion. This is a hard verdict but it is a true one. The 
white will not digest in the stomach in the sense that the 
gastric juice does not act upon it; but as it is the nearest step 
to pure blood, this is an advantage. People who, under the 
advice of doctors, drink fresh blood at a slaughter house, as 
many consumptives have done, do not have to digest it; it en¬ 
ters the circulation through the pores of the stomach, and the 
white of an egg does likewise. Or, better still, it will enter 
the circulation through the glands of the mouth if held there 
and not swallowed. It heals congested membranes when raw; 
and causes them when coagulated by heat. 

Powdered yolks of eggs. These are high class food if the 
egg is cooked as stated in a preceding page. They will balance 
any food that is lacking in complete nutrition. Thus powdered 
egg yolk spread on bread, or flaked tapioca, or meal of corn, 
will make a fully nutritious meal; and for this use it has no 
equal. 

Beef, mutton, and old lamb not aged enough to bear the hon¬ 
ored title of mutton, if cooked sufficiently but not too much, 
furnish all the meat a person needs; although the yolks of eggs 
prepared as stated are much better and yield twenty times more 
nutrition, lacking only the mineral salts that are difficult to 
obtain except in beef and mutton. These salts often fill the 
gap between life and death in the effort to cure anemia and 
neurasthenia. Beef should hardly be cooked at all. No meat 
should be cooked until all the juices have been dried up. Beef 
is good roasted or boiled while mutton is best boiled, and is 


236 


Complete Life Building 

very palatable that way. These meats will balance any incom¬ 
plete food, and stand second to egg yolks in this value. 

Red salmon. The pink is not good, and the cheap grades of 
the red are but little better. The steaks in cans are generally 
fine if put up by a reliable concern. Red salmon has the ad¬ 
vantage of being very concentrated, and but a small piece is 
required at a meal. A can of steak salmon is enough for twelve 
persons, if the can is of the usual large size. Eaten in the 
afternoon or evening meal, it will keep you awake most of the 
night. It is decidedly a noon food. 

Fish. While salmon steaks are very good in cans, all other 
fish should be fresh, except perhaps codfish. As there is one 
best way of cooking a potato, so there is one best way of cook¬ 
ing fresh fish; and that is boiling it. Fried fish will cause 
congestion, and boiled fish will help to cure this trouble. 

Rice. This is an unbalanced food unless the whole rice is 
obtained, and we do not know where you can get that. But 
the whole subject is so important that we advise you to look 
in the Index at the end of this book and find the subject Rice, 
and read everything you can find on the question. It is now of 
historic value. 

All the vegetables listed under the TRUE FOODS are un¬ 
balanced, and require meats or fish and egg yolk with them at 
the same meal. It is pleasant to have at least one vegetable at 
dinner; but the fate of those misguided vegetarians who have 
come to believe that a vegetable diet consists only of vegetables, 
and who do not know that the vegetable kingdom includes the 
grains and cereals as well as the fruits, is a lesson to every¬ 
body who wishes to escape neuralgia, headaches, anemia and 
neurasthenia as results of an unbalanced diet. 

Young shelled beans are more than a vegetable; they are 
semi-grains, as are young peas; but old beans and old peas 
cause congestion. Young beets, young carrots and young spin¬ 
ach are good food; but when old cause congestion. The same 
is true of sugar corn, the young Golden Bantam being the 
best, as Cobbler potatoes are the best of the tubers. Sweet po¬ 
tatoes and yams cause congestion. Boiled onions agree with 
certain persons; but no delicate stomach should entertain them. 
As a rule they are a valuable food. Raw onions are very 
hurtful. 


Nature’s Doctors 


237 


Raisins, dates, figs and grape butter are a group of food 
fruits; not complete enough to make a meal by themselves; but 
very valuable when taken at evening meals with some of the 
foods we have suggested. 

All the other fruits are known as the juice group, and serve 
to give vitality and pure blood if taken as the last course of a 
meal. The great mistake of taking fruit as the first course was 
discovered by many experiments carried through years of in¬ 
vestigation. Grape fruit, the abnormal orange, causes conges¬ 
tion. English marmalade, made to rid the land of orange peel 
and lemon peel, is one of the most injurious of the Profane 
foods, and accounts for the excessively irritable nature of the 
natives of that country. All that has been said under the title 
of Fruits in this book should be read with great care. 

There are fruits and sweets that should not be eaten too 
heartily at any time, and not too frequently on an empty 
stomach. 

In addition to the TRUE FOODS, certain game and fowl 
serve as a variety and change for a holiday, and do not result 
in harm to a normal stomach. Poultry that have been fed on 
clean food, make the best of these additional meats. 

THE ONE FOOD MEALS 

The nearer you get to only one food or one kind of food at 
each meal, the sooner you will get well, and the easier you will 
find it to keep well. Before we take up this subject, let us 
look for a moment at the difference between summer and win¬ 
ter foods. 

WINTER DIET.—Many of the things that are best in warm 
weather will fail to heat the body when the cold season comes; 
and you will have cold hands, cold feet, and a cold body in 
consequence. No winter diet is satisfactory as a body warmer 
unless it includes corn meal. This was the main food of the 
early settlers; in fact almost all they could get to eat for years. 
But once a day for corn meal food in cold weather will suffice. 
The corn meal can be boiled and eaten as a pudding with 
cream and sugar on cold days, and with milk and salt on 
warmer winter days. It can- be put in pans and when stiff 
may be sliced and the slices baked in an oven, and eaten with 


238 


Complete Life Building 

butter; avoiding frying and securing the same results. Corn 
bread is also very good. When this food is eaten in any form, 
all the other foods can be used in variety in the coldest weather. 

In winter eat more butter, more cream, more dates, more 
figs, more hominy, more egg yolks, more red salmon, and more 
home made candy, than in summer. These foods are heating. 
If eaten as freely in warm weather as in cold you will be very 
uncomfortable. By regulating the kind of food you can be 
too hot in summer and too cold in winter; or you can be com¬ 
fortable in both seasons. Most persons suffer unnecessarily in 
this way, when they could avoid all unpleasant feeling. 

SUMMER DIET.—A low diet, or unbalanced food, will cause 
neuralgia, or headaches; otherwise the warm weather eating 
could be confined to a few of the cooling articles. These are, 
in the first place, vegetables; but taken alone they would cause 
headaches. Whites of eggs are cooling; the yolks are heating. 
Fresh fish, not salmon, is cooling; salmon is heating. Oatmeal, 
and wheat products are the same every day in the year; neither 
heating nor cooling. The same is true of rice, tapioca, pota¬ 
toes, beef, mutton, and except in the hottest weather, of hominy 
which should be a dish all the year round. If you find that 
your summer diet is causing headaches or neuralgia, go back in 
part at least to the winter diet just stated. 

Remember that there are many articles in the TRUE FOODS 
that are intended only as extras; not being a complete food they 
should not be depended on solely to keep you in health. These 
extras are all valuable as such; and include the vegetables and 
fruits. Without them life would be rather one-sided as far as 
the diet is concerned. 

ONE FOOD MEALS were originated to cleanse out the sys¬ 
tem and re-build a body that had been abused by congestion. 
They need not be followed if not attractive. By one food is 
meant one kind of food, not one article. 

Baked potatoes and cream, or with milk instead, make a de¬ 
lightful one food meal; and might be tried for one of the eve¬ 
ning meals; just one only; eating all you wish; but eating the 
potatoes close to the skin, or with the skin excepting the outer 
thin shell. You will feel like a new person the next morning 
compared with having a clogged intestinal canal from eating 
and stuffing a meal of the profanity foods. 


Nature’s Doctors 


239 


But baked sweet apples with cream and sugar, and nothing 
else for the evening meal, will cause a headache; yet taken for 
breakfast with a dish of oatmeal, the effect will be very pleas¬ 
ant; or taken for supper with a dish of rice and cream, or 
hominy and cream, will be delightful; and as these foods are 
practically all alike they stand as making a one food meal. 

Many of the ablest men living have eaten for their break¬ 
fasts for most of their lives only a large serving of oatmeal, 
with sugar and cream in winter, and salt and rich milk in 
summer. This is one food not only at one meal, but at every 
meal of the year and for half a life time of years. 

The great President, Roosevelt, ate for his noon meal for 
many years during his strenuous service at the White House 
nothing but a bowl of bread and milk; this was another one 
food meal, not for one meal, but for all the midday meals for 
many years. 

The greatest merchants and financiers have adopted the one 
food meals as far as possible to save their health and protect 
their energies. They thereby have clearer brains. Do you 
know that it costs vitality to digest any of the profanity foods? 
And it clouds the mental powers to fight them and their poisons 
out of the system. 

Rice with egg yolk might suffice as a near one food meal; 
it is very nourishing. Rice with sugar and cream is a good 
evening meal one day in a week in any season except winter. 
Fish and potatoes make a good noon meal; of course adding 
one or more vegetables. 

But it is advisable to have at least one of the following foods 
at any meal, if you wish to avoid headaches and neuralgia: 

Wheat; Oatmeal; Corn Meal; Hominy; Rice; Baked Potatoes. 

Here are six staple foods; one at least should be present as 
a basis for what other foods you have at each and every meal, 
any day of the year. 

All the other things are aids only. 

CONGESTION OF THE STOMACH—THE BATTLE 
GROUND OF LIFE AND DEATH 

Take away this one condition and life can be prolonged in¬ 
definitely. 


240 


Complete Life Building 

Congestion is painless. 

When it reaches a certain intensity it becomes inflammation 
which is very painful. 

Congestion is a lesion or injury to the delicate porous lining 
of the stomach. This lining extends upward to the throat and 
mouth, as well as the nose; then downward from the throat into 
the lungs, involving even the sack that encloses the entire lung 
chamber; and it reaches also the sack that encloses the heart. 
From the stomach it follows the alimentary canal through all 
the intestines; involving every organ on the way. 

As soon as congestion begins in the stomach its tendency is 
to spread in each direction from that organ. As it is kept ac¬ 
tive there it reaches farther along the canal to all other parts; 
but when it is lessened in the stomach it draws in the injury 
elsewhere by a receding movement of the latter. 

It has its origin by abuse in eating or drinking. When this 
abuse is continually repeated the influence is felt in every part 
of the body where there is a membranous lining. Further 
repetition of the injury results in a chronic condition that con¬ 
verts the natural and wholesome mucus that lubricates all mem¬ 
branes, into a thick germ-laden mass known as catarrh. It is 
in this way that catarrh of the stomach originates. As con¬ 
gestion keeps on traveling to the extremes of the membranous 
canal, we have catarrh of the throat, or the bronchial passages, 
and of the nose. In the stomach this catarrh is gastritis; in 
the lung* passages it is bronchitis; in the throat it is laryngitis, 
and pharyngitis; in the nose it is plain catarrh. What is called 
a “frog in the throat” is due to stomach congestion. 

Down below the stomach this injury runs along the canal, 
and the liver becomes diseased; then Bright’s Disease of the 
kidneys may follow. Bowel movements become sluggish or ex¬ 
cessive, in one extreme or the other, when the intestines are 
congested; and constipation results. There never was a case 
of constipation that was not cured by conquering congestion 
of the stomach. 

Catarrh dwells all along the intestinal canal; until some day 
it eats off the thin and delicate surface of the canal near the 
right lower side, and makes an opening into the appendix where 
foul matter collects and decays, giving rise to appendicitis; 
another “itis.” All kinds of “itis” are caused by congestion. 


Nature’s Doctors 


241 


In an aggravated and acute form involving the great membrane 
covering of the bowels it becomes peritonitis; and is generally 
fatal; although the latter malady may arise from a wound. 

The one great universal cause of sickness and disease is con¬ 
gestion. 

The worst condition is constipation. 

Here we have cause and effect. 

To repeat what has been said before and should be said a 
million times again: 

1. There are but two causes of sickness and disease: inherited 
syphilitic taint; and congestion of the stomach. 

2. The guilty party in the inherited taint may be as remote 
as six generations; but it leaves a long train of maladies for 
the generations that follow. 

3. Congestion arouses that inherited taint, which might other¬ 
wise have remained dormant through life. 

4. In curing congestion, that taint is lessened if not too deeply 
seated; and there are many thousands of cases where the taint 
has been fully eradicated by the method of overcoming con¬ 
gestion. 

5. This brings the human race to-day face to face with prac¬ 
tically but a single foe: CONGESTION OF THE STOMACH. 

6. It is caused, and is also increased by use of the false foods 
and drinks. 

7. It is lessened and ultimately cured by use of the TRUE 
FOODS and drinks. 

Here are some examples of the apparently trivial causes of 
congestion of the stomach; and please remember that it is pain¬ 
less at all times, and is known by its progeny of results. The 
best proof that no congestion exists is found in the fact that a 
cold is absolutely impossible; that is, you cannot possibly catch 
cold no matter what the exposure. By cold we mean sore 
throat, coughing, sneezing, catarrhal running of the nose or 
pharynx, and such conditions as are commonly known under 
the name of a cold, including the grippe and influenza, which 
are only enlargements of the familiar affliction. 

Very simple things set up congestion in the stomach. 

Bran will do it; whole wheat bread will do it; oatmeal cooked 
a short time will do it. Graham bread was so named after its 
inventor, a man by name of Graham. He announced it as the 


242 


Complete Life Building 

cure all of those evils that come from white flour. He died 
of catarrh of the stomach caused by Graham bread; and he 
was not an old man at the time. 

If you cook oatmeal three hours, or better still all night in 
a fireless cooker, it will not cause congestion, but will tend to 
cure it if eaten with cream and without sugar; but the same 
oatmeal cooked the shorter length of time stated on the pack¬ 
ages, will set up congestion. Bran cooked in the manner sug¬ 
gested under the TRUE FOODS in a previous Section of this 
book will not cause the trouble; as its sharp hulls are sifted 
out; even long cooking will render them harmless. Bran is 
given to horses and cows to scour them, that is, to irritate the 
intestinal canal until the bowels move rather freely if not vio¬ 
lently. Surely such food is not fit for the human stomach. 

A baked potato, selecting the part closest to the skin, will 
tend to heal and cure congestion; the skin of an old potato may 
cause it in slight degree; of a new potato that is ripe, it will 
do no harm and is a high grade food. But if you cut away 
the outer part of a potato to the depth of a third or quarter of 
an inch, as is done by careless cooks, the starchy parts remain¬ 
ing, no matter how cooked, will cause congestion. The part 
that is discarded will cure congestion. Here is an object lesson 
in economy and in food value. Mashed potatoes thus prepared 
from the interior will produce this trouble. So will mashed 
soggy potatoes; and also under-done potatoes. Now if you fry 
this food in large pieces or thick slices, the harm is still greater; 
and when fried thin, much greater yet; while Saratoga chips 
will, if persisted in, cause gastritis and even acute indigestion 
and death. 

All lard and all fat from swine cause congestion for the very 
plain reason that the gastric juice of the stomach will not mix 
with swine fat, especially in the form of lard. Bacon always 
leaves injury, despite the fact that it is an appetizer. A whole 
stomach needs no appetizer. Pastry even clogs the pores of 
the stomach with an irritant mass of dough. Any crisp meat 
surface will do injury; and crisp food surface of any kind. 
New bread and hot bread, new cake and most puddings cause 
congestion. 

Every article mentioned under the title of PROFANITY 
in the Curative Section of this book sets up congestion. It is 


Nature’s Doctors 


243 


not necessary for us to repeat that long list here. Look at 
your Index at the end of this book and find the page on which 
those foods are discussed. You will then know what to avoid. 

From what has already been stated, it can be seen that all 
the vital organs are encased in membranes or coverings. These 
membranes have delicate inner linings, which are porous, and 
it is through these pores that a lubricating and vitalizing mucus 
is constantly flowing, without which all life in the body would 
cease. 

The brain, which is the seat of intelligence and of control 
over the faculties and powers of the body, is encased in mem¬ 
branes which are known as meninges. These meninges throw 
through their pores a continual stream of mucus highly charged 
with electrical acids, by which thought is possible. When the 
brain is actively thinking or studying, this mucus becomes very 
active and abundant; in sleep it almost ceases. No mucus can 
be more healthful than the membranes that secrete it. Con¬ 
gestion from the stomach travels rapidly to these meninges. 
The latest statements on the subject of insanity from experts 
who are known as alienists, are to the effect that a congested 
stomach interferes with the normal action of the brain; and 
that chronic congestion induces insanity. The reason is easy 
to see. 

Nothing more quickly and more violently congests the stom¬ 
ach than alcohol; from a normal gray color when in perfect 
health, the lining of the stomach becomes a vivid red, changing 
under the influence of more alcohol to a malignant purple. 
This excessive congestion travels rapidly to the meninges of 
the brain, and renders thought incoherent, and action erratic. 
Such a brain that would kill when thus congested, is too often 
directing some motor vehicle, too often maiming children, too 
often taking human life; and the laws permit these atrocious 
crimes by their leniency and the grotesquely inadequate sen¬ 
tences of chicken-hearted judges; while there is a growing dis¬ 
trust of course of justice and a profound contempt for the ad¬ 
ministration of the law. We cite this as one of thousands of 
consequences of abuse of the temple of life, the human body. 

Whatever seriously congests the stomach, whether food or 
drink, medicines or drugs, directly or indirectly congests the 
meninges of the brain, and deprives the man or woman of the 


244 


Complete Life Building 

highest value in life, the perfect functioning of the brain and 
the faculties. From every standpoint, whether of health or of 
safety to self and others, of moral or immoral habits, of irri¬ 
tability or gentleness, attractiveness or repulsiveness, success or 
failure, happiness or misery, life or premature death, the whole 
story of human suffering and human emancipation is written 
in the one word: CONGESTION. 

TESTS SHOULD BE MADE IN BRAIN HEALTH 

For years there have been tests of some of the functions of 
the human body; that of the kidneys is perhaps the most com¬ 
mon. Blood tests show the quality of life in that fluid, make 
known certain diseases both inherited and acquired, and even 
tell the story of benefit or harm coming from any kind of food 
that is eaten. These all serve useful purposer Of late it has 
become a very common practice to make tests to measure the 
BLOOD PRESSURE of a person of almost any age above that 
of youth, with the result that approaching organic diseases have 
been avoided by changing the diet. 

But TESTS OF BRAIN HEALTH are vastly more import¬ 
ant, but have not been made because they cannot be undertaken 
by the use of instruments. As there are many mental examina¬ 
tions in vogue today to determine the actual value of mind and 
brain of men and women who seek the most lucrative positions 
in lines of employment; so there are MENTAL TESTS that dis¬ 
close to a certainty to what extent a person’s brain is off the 
normal condition. And now it is provable that a person’s suc¬ 
cess or failure in life, is exactly due and chargeable to the 
health, normal or abnormal, of the meninges or brain linings 
that control all thought, all judgment, all plans, all decisions 
and all operations of existence. 

Your attention is called to what is said on the preceding page 
of the cause of abnormal mental health. Turn back one page, 
and read every word many times. 

If you cannot comprehend the full import of that account, 
you may be sure that your mind and judgment are clouded 
nearly one hundred percent by congested membranes. 

But if you do see clearly the meaning of what is said, then 
you are ready for the extended and elaborate tests that may be 
provided for you under the plan stated in the final pages of 
this book. 


Nature’s Doctors 


245 


RALSTON HEALTH CLUB 
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT 

The following RULES have been made for the benefit of our 
patrons: 

RULE 1.—“RALSTONITE IN GOOD STANDING. ’ ’•—Any 
person who owns for his or her exclusive use this Book of Com¬ 
plete Life Building will be recognized as a Ralstonite in Good 
Standing if the following conditions are observed: 

One.—This system must be employed as the chief guide to 
health. 

Two.—There must be a whole-hearted loyalty to the principles 
of good health as taught herein. 

Three.—Our Club name must be protected from misuse by 
unscrupulous and dishonest concerns who claim to make 
authorized Ralston foods 'and other goods; when, in fact, 
we have nothing for sale and have never given permission 
to use our name. A loyal Ralstonite will not buy or have 
on hand such contraband goods. 

RULE 2.—“PROGRESSIVE RALSTONITES.’*—Any per¬ 
son who owns and keeps this Book of Complete Life Building 
for his or her exclusive use, and who decides to become a Ral¬ 
stonite in Good Standing, is permitted to advance Degrees of 
Honor as a Progressive Ralstonite. These Degrees of Honor 
are being established to enable us to confer proper rank on 
every Member who desires to cooperate with us in the spread 
of the doctrines of good health. 

RULE 3.—The First step to be taken is to copy and send to 
the Ralston Health Club, Hopewell, New Jersey, the following 
Application: 

‘ ‘ I have decided to become as far as possible, a Ralstonite 
in Good Standing, and I will remain loyal to the principles 
of good health, and to the Club. ,, 

RULE 4.—The Second Step to be taken is to copy and send 
us the following Application: 

“To the Ralston Health Club, Hopewell, New Jersey: 
I have decided to become a Progressive Ralstonite, and de¬ 
sire to be accorded the rank of Honor, at the rate of One 
Degree for each new Member whom I shall induce to be¬ 
come a Ralstonite in Good Standing.” 


246 


Complete Life Building 


RULE 5.—At the FIFTH DEGREE OF HONOR, every 
Progressive Ralstonite will receive, as a present from the Club, 
the most important and most helpful training system ever 
issued, known as “BRAIN TESTS,’’ the price of which is ten 
dollars. This present is awarded on condition that it is applied 
for in ten days after this page is brought to your attention, 
or you are aware of the offer. Otherwise the price will be as 
usual, ten dollars. The five copies of Complete Life Building 
that you receive, may be sold by you at a profit, or given away. 
If sold, you are allowed such time as you desire to dispose of 
them. If money order for the ten dollars is mailed in ten days, 
you will receive at once five copies of Complete Life Building, 
and the present of “BRAIN TESTS.” 

RULE 6.—HIGHER DEGREES.—For each new Member 
after the Fifth, that you induce to become a Ralstonite in 
Good Standing, you will be advanced one additional Degree 
of Honor. This is not at all difficult. It is a matter of common 
knowledge that, as soon as it is known that these books can be 
procured without waiting, they are in very strong demand. 
One person states that this book has saved his life, and almost 
everybody wants to buy a copy right away. Of these new 
patrons, nine out of every ten decides to become a Ralstonite in 
Good Standing, and you receive the credit with hardly any 
effort at all. In one small town, a woman who was dying, was 
saved by Complete Life Building; and THREE HUNDRED 
others bought copies of the book. Why not get the credit if 
your influence does good work like this? 

RULE 7.—ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS.—There is no limit 
to the Degrees that you may reach; but by starting a community 
in the general use of this book, it is easy to reach one hundred. 
A minister did this in one evening by proving to his congre¬ 
gation that his life had been saved by this system. He took one 
hundred orders for the book after the regular services. All the 
money that we have received has been devoted by us to the 
cause of spreading the work of this book in saving life and 
restoring health. WE WISH TO KNOW HOW BEST TO DO 
THIS. Any Progressive Ralstonite of the 100th Degree who will 
submit the most effective plan that will accomplish this great 
purpose, in a highly successful manner, will be awarded our 
highest HONOR, One Thousand Dollars in Gold. 


Nature’s Doctors 247 

POST-GRADUATE COURSE 

OF THE 

RALSTON HEALTH CLUB 

E SHOULD BE REMISS in our duty if we were 
to omit a post-graduate course in this great sys¬ 
tem of health training. There are two kinds of 
health; that of the body, and that of the mind. 
If you were compelled to choose between the two, 
which would you prefer; to be weak in body, or weak-minded? 
There are more diseases of the body than can be listed and 
described in the largest library of a private residence; and 
there are endless indications and symptoms of mental disturb¬ 
ances and pending troubles of brain and mind that are breed¬ 
ing dangers never before regarded as possible. 

THE ‘‘POST-GRADUATE COURSE’’ is published in a 
volume much larger than the book of Complete Life Building, 
and is entitled 

A COMPLETE SYSTEM OP 

BRAIN TESTS 

TO DETERMINE THE PLACE OF EVERY HUMAN 
BEING IN THE SCALE OF 

CIVILIZATION 

This is published privately. As no person possesses perfectly 
normal mental health, it is important to find the defects and 
remove the cause. This is done by TESTS that involve every 
phase of human activities and experiences in the enactment of 
life itself; making it the whole story of existence passing in 
review before the brain of the student and reader; and ren¬ 
dering to humanity a service never before equaled. So large 
a work and so vast a theme require a great volume of instruc¬ 
tion and training that is worth an immense fortune to every 
man and woman in the benefits obtained. 



248 


Complete Life Building 

Death is to be preferred to mental weakness or a fading mind. 

The brain function is all that makes life worth living. 

It is suffering daily from lesions that cause' it to err in 
every department; in judgment; in mental poise; in the grasp 
of the many problems of living; and in every form of asso¬ 
ciation with others in the business, professional or social world; 
and in countless mental twists that bring distress, disappoint¬ 
ments and failure in the struggle of existence. 

This “Post-Graduate Course” of the Ralston Health Club 
first finds the state or condition of these functions; then applies 
the curative processes; bringing the brain into PERFECT 
HEALTH, just as the body is made perfect in its physical 
health by the Book of Complete Life Building. Thus the two 
systems work together, establishing permanently: 

PERFECT HEALTH OF THE BODY. 

PERFECT HEALTH OF THE BRAIN. 

This is the only system ever devised for acquiring complete 
brain health. 

There is help for everybody. This system has been taught 
privately to some of the most successful business men, bankers, 
professional men and the most brilliant women in America; all 
have been benefitted; all have praised it, and pronounced it 
exceedingly interesting and valuable; and some have several 
times repeated the course. It is now published complete in one 
large volume, ready for everybody. 

It proves that life is worth living only in proportion as the 
brain approaches its intended normal function; that very few 
human beings have a reasonable percentage of normal health in 
this function; and that those who do acquire it are the only 
real men and women of civilization. 

PRICE.—This testing and training system, if its teachings 
and instruction were put into the form of a correspondence 
course would easily sell for one hundred dollars. In actual 
benefits it brings a value that cannot be reckoned in money; 
certainly not in thousands of dollars, for perfect mental health 
is beyond money value. In view of these facts, we consider 
the sum of ten dollars as a merely nominal price. We know 
that you would not part with it for ten dollars. Send money 
order for this sum to Ralston Company, Hopewell, New Jersey. 


Nature’s Doctors 


249 


AGENTS AND OTHERS 

HAVE been requested to permit others to act 
s Agents for the distribution of this Book of 
jife Building. It has never been our purpose 
y ask any Ralstonite to become an Agent; and 
it is only when the request comes to us that we 
seek to arrange some plan whereby these books may be dis¬ 
tributed among the many thousands of applicants who are con¬ 
stantly seeking copies. The methods herein stated are those 
that have been suggested to us by people who have given the 
matter careful thought; always from among our own Members: 

THE ACCOMMODATION PLAN 

FOR ACCOMMODATION.—It must be borne in mind that 
the news of this most remarkable system is spreading in all 
directions, and that new seekers after health become urgent and 
impatient at the delay required to find our address, to buy a 
money order, to send it to us, and to wait for the return of 
the mail with the welcome eopy of the book. Therefore it has 
been the most pleasing experience of our Members that when 
they secure from five to ten copies to have on hand for immediate 
delivery, they are thanked over and over again by the recpients; 
and they soon learn that others hear that they have a few copies 
on hand, and call for them. 

This is the ACCOMMODATION PLAN: keeping on hand 
from five to ten copies to have ready for immediate delivery 
as demanded. Any person, whether a Member or not, who 
wishes copies in lots of five or more at one time, may buy them 
of us at two dollars a copy; and we will pay the cost of mailing 
or expressing them. 



AGENCIES 

SUPPLY AGENTS.—In distinction from those who keep on 
hand a number of these books as an accommodation to their 
friends and acquaintances, there are others who carry in their 
homes or places of business a regular supply in order to meet 


250 


Complete Life Building 


the demands of the general public. In most instances this sup¬ 
ply consists of several dozen books. We sell them for twenty- 
one dollars a dozen; and we pay the cost of sending them. 

It is a common experience that where one of these books is 
owned by a person, the benefits derived from its system soon 
become known far and wide. Many others will desire the book. 
If they are compelled to send for it, and to wait the great length 
of time required to get it when they live a long distance away, 
they lose their interest. In one village a woman was saved from 
the fate that befalls so many women, and her only help came 
from this book; others heard of the case, and sought copies; 
they banded together and purchased eighteen copies at the 
price of two dollars each. In a city a similar experience in a 
different kind of malady resulted in a regular stampede for the 
book. The point is this: let it become known that you own 
Complete Life Building and you will be asked where the book 
can be obtained; and, if you can supply copies at once, you will 
soon dispose of a goodly number without effort. 

We advise every man or woman who wishes to become a 
Supply Agent to start by buying one dozen copies, which will 
cost only twenty-one dollars; and they may be sold for the usual 
retail price of $2.25 each. A very generous person might sell 
them at cost for the purpose of helping the greatest cause of 
its kind ever known. 


WHOLESALE AGENTS 

WHOLESALE AGENTS .—Also Free Distributors .—Persons 
of small means are timid in the use of it, not knowing that it 
will soon become a very important investment. It is there¬ 
fore left to others who do things in a big way to become Whole¬ 
sale Agents. No person is refused this privilege. Women as 
often as men become such Agents. The distinction should be 
understood, and it is this: A person who buys the book in lots 
of five, ten or more, for the accommodation of friends and ac¬ 
quaintances, is not an Agent at all; but when the books are 
bought in lots of not less than a dozen for general sale as de¬ 
manded by the public, the person handling them in that way 
is known as a Supply Agent. The Wholesale Agent must pur¬ 
chase them in lots of not less than One Hundred at a time; 


Nature’s Doctors 


251 


and because of this number and the fact that the cost of send¬ 
ing is lessened per copy, we make a strictly Wholesale Price 
of one hundred and fifty dollars; and, as in all cases, we pay 
the cost of sending them to anyone anywhere. 

The Wholesale Agent may sell to stores, book dealers, the 
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The TEN DAY OFFER of one hundred dollars’ worth of the 
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252 


Complete Life Building 

FORMS TO BE USED 

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purpose I enclose herewith money order for. 

copies at the rate of two dollars each. ’ ’ 

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.dollars for.dozens.” 

WHOLESALE AGENTS.—This bigger plan is explained on 
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for free distribution.” (Attach full address to whatever FORM 
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TEN DAYS 



O THE OWNER OF THIS BOOK:— 

WE ASSERT, and stand ready to prove, that this 
Book of Complete Life Building is the most valuable 
work of its kind ever issued; and it is claimed by 
those who are in a position to know that it is the 
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A Degree of Honor is conferred at the rate of one degree 
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loss of time a serious one. Remit by Money Order to 

RALSTON COMPANY, Hopewell, New Jersey. 


























INDEX 


Acute Indigestion.182 

Adulterations . 87 

Air when Poison. 28 

Alcoholism Caused. 182 

All Nature Cures. 181 

Almonds, Digestion of. 79 

Anemia and Congestion. 25 

Anemia ..191, 192, 195 

Angelic Wife . 178 

Appendicitis .202, 204 

Appendicitis Prevented.183 

Apples, Digestion of. 79 

Apples, Facts about. 126 

Apples, When not Mellow. 87 

Arrowroot . 79 

Arteries, Hardening of. 202 

Artichokes . 83 

Asparagus, Digestion of. 79 

Asthma and Congestion. 25 

Asthma Cured. 184 

Auto-Suggestion Failures.144 

Bacon . 86 

Baking Powder Formula. 52 

Bananas, Facts about.127 

Barley Bread. 86 

Barley, Pearl. 79 

Bathing, when Magnetic.203 

Beans, Dried . 85 

Beans, Green. 83 

Beef, Digestion of. 79 

Beef Juice.. 78 

Beets, Digestion of. 79 

Beets, Old . 84 

Beginning of Life. 36 

Beriberi from Bice. 53 

Bleeding. 63 

Blood Pressure Cured.184 

Boils and Carbuncles.187 

Bones, Making of. 37 

Brain Irritability. 180 

Brain of Man and Animal.... 43 

Brains, Making of. 42 

Bran . 87 

Bread, Digestion of. 79 

Bread, New . 83 

Brown Bread. 85 

Bright’s Disease. 186 

Buckwheat . 83 

Building a New Body. 159 

Building the Body. 65 

Butter, Digestion of. 78 

Buttermilk . 79 

Cabbage . 84 

Oak e .. 79 

Calcium Chloride . 208 

Calcium . 51 

Calcium Discussed . 57 

Calories, Facts about.141 

Cancer and Tobacco. 189 

253 


Cancer, Erratic Growth. 46 

Cancer of Throat. 47 

Cancer When Inherited. 26 

Candies and Chocolates. 90 

Canned Vegetables . 224 

Capon . 83 

Carbon . 50 

Carbuncles and Boils. 187 

Card Playing Women. 10 

Careless Sickness . 9 

Caramels, Balston. 117 

Carp . .... 83 

Carrots . 83 

Catarrh Cured. 189 

Catsup . 87 

Cauliflower . 84 

Cautions as to Food. 81 

Cave Man, Climax of Life.... 31 

Celery, Raw or Cooked. 79 

Cheese, Ordinary. 86 

Cherries, Digestion of. 79 

Chestnuts . 79 

Chewing Food. 66 

Chewing on Empty Stomach... 70 

Chicken . 83 

Chicken Broth . 79 

Chocolate and Cramps. 197 

Chocolate, Digestion of. 79 

Chlorine in Salt. 52 

Circulation of Blood. 27 

Clams . 86 

Coconut . 87 

Cocoa, Digestion of. 79 

Codfish . 83 

Coffee, Facts about. 139 

Coffee, How Made. 99 

Colds and Sore Throat. 191 

Cold Sores . 196 

Colitis and Colonitis. 21 

Common Sense .293 

Congestion, Cause of. 191 

Congestion Discussed. 19 

Congestion of Stomach. 239 

Congestion, the Enemy.243 

Constipation Cured. 191 

Consumption.191, 192 

Controlling Poisons . 28 

Cornaro, Louis . 15 

Corn Canned . 84 

Corn, Green. 79 

Corn-Stalk Foods. 97 

Corn Meal . 79 

Corn Starch. 79 

Crabs . 85 

Crackers . 79 

Cramps .191 

Cranberries . 87 

Cravings and Diet. 178 

Craving, Intense. 71 





















































































































254 


Index 


Creator and Human Body. 

Cream, Digestion of..... 

Cream Cheese . 

Crime to be Sick. 

Crisp Meats and Foods.. 

Cucumbers and Radishes. 

Currants, Dried. 

Dangerous Symptoms . 

Dandruff and Loss of Hair. 

Dates, Digestion of. 

Dead Tissue. 

Diabetes Discussed. 

Diabetes and Water. 

Piet for Summer. 

Diet for Winter. 

Diphtheria Cured . 

Disease and Death. 

Diseases from False Foods.... 

Disease, Two Causes of. 

Distillation . 

Docile Temper Ruined. 

Double-baked Bread. 

Double-Range Respiration. 

Doughnuts and Fritters. 

Drinks as Food. 

Ducks . 

Edison and Cornaro. 

Eggs, Cleanly . 

Eggs, Fried . 

Egg, Raw Yolk of. 

Egg, White of. 

Egg Yolk Cooked. 

Empty Stomach, Chewing on.. 

Enemies of Life... 

English Walnuts. 

Epidemics of 1876. 

Epidemics of Grippe. 

Eyeball Symptoms. 

Eye-Curative Movements. 

Eyesight and Health. 

Eye-Wash Home Made. 

Fads and Fancies. 

Fasting for Health. 

Fatty Degeneration. 

Feeble-Minded Age . 

Figs, Sterilized. 

Fines for Ill-Health. 

Fireless Cooker. 

First Bread Making. 

First Cause of Sickness. 

First Renewal of Life. 

First Vineyards. 

Fish Must be Fresh. 

Five Hour Class. 

Five Minute Class. 

Flounder . 

Flour with Bran Out. 

Food Becomes Poison. 

Foods Discussed. 

Food Facts . 


Foods Not Digested Together.. 76 

Foods, Supposed. 96 

Foods That are Not. 96 

Foods that are Vicious. 179 

Four Hour Class. 85 

Fourteen Elements. 49 

Fruits and Cautions. 82 

Fruits, Facts About. 124 

Fruit Puddings and Cakes. 86 

Fruit Syrups. 90 

Frying Pan Dangers. 132 

Gall Stones . 200 

Gas on Stomach. 67 

Gastric Juice. 67 

Gelatine . 87 

General Life. 65 

Germs Wait for Congestion.... 21 

Glucose . 118 

Goose . 86 

Gouty Affection . 186 

Government Tests. 29 

Grapes, Facts about. 126 

Graham Bread . 83 

Grippe . 196 

Growth in Sleep Only. 151 

Growth of Hair. 40 

Habits of Life. 74 

Haddock. 83 

Hair Growth . 40 

Hair Loss and Dandruff. 196 

Hair Loss and Foods. 56 

Halibut . 83 

Ham Boiled. 85 

Ham, Fried . 86 

Hardening of Arteries. 202 

Hay Fever and Calcium. 57 

Hay Fever and Congestion.... 25 
Hay Fever and Rose Cold. .200, 201 

Headaches Prevented. 201 

Health Communities .225 

Hearing When Failing. 199 

Heart-Beat, Making. 45 

Heart Failure. 48 

Heart Weakness. 202 

Herring, Fresh . 83 

Herring, Smoked, etc. 85 

Hominy, Digestion of. 78 

Honey, How Used. 232 

How Life is Built. 35 

Human Body, The. 49 

Human Hair and Foods. 26 

Hunger and Starvation. 69 

Husband Careless. 9 

Tee Water, Value of. 121 

Increase of Disease. 14 

Indigestion, Acute.182 

Indigestion Cured . 202 

Influenza Prevented.204 

Infringement Penalized . 50 

Initials and Round Table. 16 


60 

79 

83 

8 

87 

87 

87 

218 

196 

79 

72 

200 

25 

238 

237 

200 

29 

180 

75 

170 

180 

79 

192 

86 

98 

85 

24 

222 

70 

78 

78 

79 

70 

72 

86 

14 

22 

218 

199 

197 

197 

141 

160 

200 

26 

79 

8 

227 

31 

14 

66 

31 

83 

85 

78 

84 

79 

28 

81 

93 



















































































































Index 


255 


Insanity Prevented. 

Insomnia Cured. 

Intelligence of Brain. 

Iron . 

Irritability . 

Jellies Home Made. 

Junket . 

Kidneys, Growth of. 

Kidney Trouble . 

Knowledge Revolutionized. 

Lamb . 

Lard as Food. 

Lard, Facts about. 

LAW OF LAWS. 

Leeches and Lances. 

Lentils . 

Lettuce . 

Life and Death Battle. 

Life Enemies. 

Liquid Foods. 

Liver as Food. 

Liver, Diet for. 

Liver, Growth of. 

Liver Influences . 

Lobster. 

Lockjaw . 

Long Time Foods. 

Lungs, Growth of. 

Macaroni . 

Mackerel, Fresh . 

Magnetic Bath. 

Making Bones. 

Making Brains . 

Making Skin. 

Maladies Increasing. 

Malaria . 

Maple Sugar and Syrup. 

Matinee Girl’s Sickness. 

Meats, Faets about. 

Meats, Cooked Hard. 

Membranes of Brain. 

Mental Poisoning. 

Methods of Methodists. 

Milk and Bread First Used.... 

Milk, Facts about. 

Milk, Kinds of. 

Milk, Raw and Clean. 

Milk Toast. 

Mincemeat . 

Mineral Oil Dangers. 

Moss, Kinds of. 

Muscle Making Foods. 

Mutton . 

Needs of Body, Fourteen. 

Nervous Prostration .192, 

Neurasthenia . 

Neuritis . 

Neuralgia . 

New Body, After Building.... 
New Body, How Built. 


New Knowledge .147 

Never Class Discussed. 87 

Never Class Foods. 87 

Numbness and Cramps. 191 

Nuts, Caution . 86 

Nuts, Limited . 83 

Nuts, Pecan and Hickory. 85 

Nuts, Oily Kinds. 86 

Oat Groats ... 83 

Oat Meal . 59 

Oat Meal Discussed. 83 

Old Age Solvents. 169 

Olives . 80 

One Hundred Percent. 49 

One Hour Class. 79 

Onions, Boiled . 80 

Onions, Fried . 86 

One-Food Meals .237, 238 

Oranges, Facts about. 128 

Oriental Diet. 53 

Oriental Foods Bad. 61 

Outward Water Cure. 202 

Over-balance of Foods. 53 

Oxygen . 50 

Oyster Plant . 85 

Oysters, Fancy Roast. 83 

Oysters, Fried. 86 

Oysters, Raw . 80 

Palate Pleased . 68 

Pancakes . 83 

Paris Law . 7 

Paralysis, General . 210 

Paresis . 211 

Parsnips . 83 

Parts of the Body. 36 

Past Life Battles. 30 

Pastry and Patties. 86 

Pastry, Facts about. 134 

Peanuts . 86 

Pearl Tapioca. 81 

Peas, Dried . 85 

Peas, Green . 80 

Pellagra and Food. 55 

Peppers and Pickles. 87 

Pigeon, Young. 83 

Piles Cured . 211 

Pneumonia Prevented . 191 

Poison Removers . 64 

Pork Cooked Crisp. 86 

Potatoes as Food.. 58 

Potatoes, Facts about. 107 

Potatoes, Fried. 86 

Potatoes, When Best. 107 

Potatoes, White . 80 

Potatoes, Old . 83 

Powdered Egg Yolks. 230 

Prehistoric Food. 31 

Preservatives . 91 

Prevention That Prevents. 7 

Primitive Evening Meal. 31 


204 

205 

62 

51 

206 

83 

79 

42 

207 

35 

79 

86 

130 

55 

64 

83 

79 

34 

72 

66 

85 

209 

42 

209 

85 

209 

102 

42 

80 

83 

203 

37 

42 

39 

32 

209 

79 

8 

113 

86 

180 

146 

17 

31 

111 

80 

223 

80 

86 

132 

80 

208 

85 

49 

210 

192 

210 

209 

166 

153 
























































































































256 Index 


Primitive Malady. 32 

Profanity a Food Malady.212 

Profanity Diet . 212 

Progressive Ralstonites.245 

Prunes, Cooked. 80 

Pudding of Wheat. 227 

Radishes . 87 

Raisins . 80 

Ralston Discoveries . 25 

Raw Foods Limited.227, 264 

Rheumatism and Food. 25 

Rheumatism Cured. 213 

Rice and Beriberi. 53 

Rice, Natural . 80 

Rice, Whole. 223 

Rickets and Food. 56 

Right Foods . 52 

Ripening of Body. 27 

Rolling of Bowels. 67 

Rose Cold and Hay Fever.200 

Round Table of 1876. 14 

Round Table of 1926. 17 

Rules of Life. 66 

Rye . 83 

Saccharin . 117 

Sago . 80 

Saliva, Antiseptic. 66 

Salmon . 85 

Salmon, Red . 230 

Salsify . 83 

Salt as Food. 57 

Salt, Common . 51 

Salt, Facts about. 121 

Salt, Many Kinds.121 

Salt, When Poison. 122 

Saratoga Chips . 86 

Sauces and Gravies. 86 

Scalp Diseases .196 

Scalp Growth . 40 

Seaweed as Food. 61 

Second Cause of Illness. 14 

Secret of Safety. 14 

Sickness When Impossible.... 60 

Sight Failing . 199 

Sixteen Diseases. 33 

Shampooing the Scalp. 26 

Shrimps . 86 

Skin, Making of. 39 

Skin Wrinkles. 56 

Smelt . 83 

Smoker’s Cancer. 47 

Sodium in Salt. 52 

Sole . 83 

Solid Food Chewing. 66 

Sore Throat and Colds. 191 

Soup and Bouillon. 78 

Spark of Life. 145 

Spinach . 80 

Spinach with Fat. 85 

Stimulants, Desire for. 27 


Stomach Congestion .213, 239 

Stomach, Growth of. 42 

Stomach Troubles. 213 

Suet . 86 

Sugar, Digestion of. 78 

Sugar, Facts about. 115 

Summer Diet. 238 

Sweet Potatoes and Yams. 85 

Symptoms of Danger. 218 

Syphilitic Afflictions .214 

Tapioca, Flake . 223 

Tapioca, Not Pearl. 80 

Tea and Paralysis. 210 

Tea, Facts about. 136 

Tests of Brain Health. 244 

Three Hour Class. 84 

Tides of Human Life. 148 

Times of Digestion. 76 

Toast Buttered . 79 

Tobacco and Cancer.189 

Tobacco, Not Antiseptic. 46 

Tobacco and Syphilis.214 

Tomatoes . 83 

Trout . 83 

True Food Benefits. 171 

True Foods Balanced. 233 

True Foods of To-day.219 

True Foods Listed. 220 

Tuberculosis . 191 

Tumors and Abscesses. 115 

Turkey . 83 

Turnips . 86 

Two Causes of Disease. 75 

Two Hour Period. 83 

Two Kinds of Life. 65 

Ultimate Civilization. 48 

Under-balance in Foods. 53 

Variety of Meals. 104 

Veal . 83 

Vegetables . 82 

Vegetables Canned. 224 

Vegetarians . 114 

Venereal Taint and Cancer.... 189 

Venison . 85 

Vermicelli . 80 

Vitamins, Facts about. 143 

Water Cure, Outward.202 

Water, Distilled . 224 

Water When Poison. 28 

Water, Value of. 100 

Wheat, Facts about. 105 

Wheat Pudding . 227 

White Flour .222 

Wholesome Food Poisons. 75 

Whole Wheat Flour.221 

Winter Diet. 237 

Worry . 205 

Wrinkled Skin and Foods. 56 

Yeast, Facts about. 131 

Yeast, When Hurtful. 131 































































































































































































